Representation: preferences, priorities, and tradeoffs

Hayes, Matthew

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Description

Title

Representation: preferences, priorities, and tradeoffs

Author(s)

Hayes, Matthew

Issue Date

2013-05-24T22:06:45Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Kuklinski, James H.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Kuklinski, James H.

Committee Member(s)

• Gaines, Brian J.
• Mondak, Jeffery J.
• Wong, Cara J.

Department of Study

Political Science

Discipline

Political Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Representation
• race
• procedural justice
• process preferences

Abstract

This dissertation investigates whether citizens are willing to make tradeoffs between descriptive and substantive representation. Answering this question is critical to efforts to maximize satisfaction with government for both minorities and members of the majority. This study makes four main contributions. First, it investigates how citizens, not scholars, evaluate descriptive and substantive representation. Although the stockpile of studies on the two types of representation has grown dramatically, the citizen’s perspective has been noticeably absent. Second, in using an experiment, the study estimates not only the independent effects of the two aspects of representation, but also the interactive effects, which in turn speaks to how willing citizens are to make tradeoffs. Third, the study facilitates deriving implications for maximizing satisfaction with governmental decisions across majority and minority groups. Finally, the study investigates the role of innumeracy in shaping people’s preferences for representation. I find that maximizing satisfaction for both minorities and the majority is indeed possible. Proportional or higher descriptive representation compensates for unfavorable substantive representation for minorities, and members of the majority are willing to accept such representational arrangements.

Graduation Semester

2013-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44291

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2012 Matthew J. Hayes

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