Assignments

1
Assignments

• Take home essay due at beginning of class on
  Tuesday
• Last test is a week from today
• Group project presentations begin Apr. 26
• Extra credit deadline is April 28 (last day of
  class)

2
Representation

• Women in Congress (15 of 535 seats)
• Women in House 15.2
• Women in Senate 14
• Women of Color 3.4 of Total (0 in senate)
• African Americans in Congress
• In Senate 1-Barack Obama from Illinois
• In House 39 (9) Overall 7

3
Around the World

• US is 59th in world
• Average for all countries (15.7), below average
  for Americas (18.7), Europe (19) about the
  same as Asia (15)
• More than 80 countries have adopted gender quotas
  since Beijing
• What should we conclude from this?

4
Is our Government Representative of Women?

• What does it mean to represent?
• Descriptive/Mirror Representation
• Standing For representation
• Symbolic/Passive Representation
• NOT about what the representative DOES
• Problems with descriptive representation
• too limited a view doesnt capture key
  intuitions
• What about divisions within a group?
• Democratic representation involves interaction

5
Substantive Representation

• Voice Represent interests, ideas, identities
• Complex relationship between group membership and
  group interests-policy gender gap (is it a
  gender gap or a race gap in US)
• Delegate or Trustee model?
• Delegate strict adherence to prior wishes
• Trustee engage on behalf of constituents
• Problems Groups dont share interests, etc
• Process of representation

6
Democratic Representation

• Authorization
• Accountability
• Inclusion Symbolic and Substantive
• Special case of marginalized groups
• social, economic and political inequality
• History of exclusion
• Negative meanings assigned to group
• Group affiliation difficult to change (ascriptive)