Legislative Oversight and the Substantive Representation of Black and Latino Interests in Congress

Abstract

When determining whether or not legislators are representing their constituents' interests, scholars using voting studies may overstate the role of strategic factors, such as reelection goals and constituent influence, while understating the effect of descriptive characteristics. I argue that race and ethnicity matter in congressional oversight of bureaucratic policymaking. My examination of hearing transcripts from the 107th Congress indicates that minority legislators are more likely than white legislators to participate in racial‐oversight hearings but not more likely than whites to participate in social welfare hearings. The results show that descriptive representation contributes to substantive representation, even if the costs of participating outweigh the electoral benefits.

The Wielding Influence of Political Networks: Representation in Majority-Latino Districts

“…Building on the existing literature (Minta 2009;Rouse 2013;Wallace 2014), this project presents new evidence of how political network activity yields varying levels of substantive representation. While district demographics and partisanship have been found to be predictors of Latino legislator behaviors (Wallace 2014), the findings suggest that political networks are also closely tied to specific issue prioritization of Latino representatives.…”

“…In other words, the candidates that emerge should prioritize and advocate on behalf of issues that their group supporters consider to be important. While the literature has found that Latino candidates substantively represent their constituents through formal and informal behaviors (Minta 2009;Rouse 2013;Wallace 2014) no work has investigated what role groups and elites play in shaping Latino substantive representation. This paper extends prior work in this area and argues that political network activity shapes the type of substantive representation of the winning candidates in these majority-Latino districts, given how influential the groups are to the success of some candidates over others.…”

“…The findings in this paper help us understand why some Latino legislators may choose to channel their opposition in different ways, and which factors influence the "intensity" of Latino legislator efforts toward certain issues over others (Minta 2009). This paper suggests that political networks influence Latino substantive representation in an indirect way by influencing the prospects of some Latino candidates who would be distinct advocates of Latino issues.…”

“…Scholars of minority substantive representation have looked at voting patterns and other behaviors of Latinos already in elected office to determine how their presence in the legislature leads to substantive representation (Canon 1999;Hero and Tolbert 1995;Lublin 1997;Kerr and Miller 1997;Casellas 2007;Minta 2009;Juenke and Preuhs 2012;Rouse 2013;Wallace 2014).…”

“…Some of these include racial oversight hearings (Minta 2009), chairing hearings and addressing issues of housing, civil rights, and social welfare (Ellis and Wilson 2013), prioritizing Latino issues in committees and co-sponsoring bills tied to Latino interests (Rouse 2013;Wallace 2014 …”