Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Descriptive Representatives and Institutional Context

对传统上代表性不足的群体更好的描述性代表性是否会导致在决策中更好地代表他们的利益？换句话说，被选出来代表一个以前未被充分代表的群体（例如，玻利维亚的土著）的个人是否与那些传统上掌权的代表表现出明显不同的政策观点？描述性代表权和实质性代表权之间的联系强度是否取决于旨在增强描述性代表权的体制机制类型、描述性代表权所属的政党类型，或者政党对其行为的控制强度？本项目将试图回答这些问题，因为它们涉及实质性代表的一种重要形式：描述性代表在立法审议中表达政策观点。它考察了描述性代表在政治科学文献中通常探讨的更传统的问题（例如，拉丁美洲土著代表的土地权利，或美国黑人代表的社会福利政策）和各种各样的政治问题上的审议行为，这些问题可以说对公众更为突出（例如，外交政策，税收政策和医疗政策）。在此过程中，它开发了一种原始的实质性代表性测量方法，绘制了委员会辩论期间演讲的模式，以揭示来自代表性不足的群体的代表是否与来自历史代表性群体的代表支持明显不同的政策观点。它将解释和展示政治背景如何制约立法者的行为，并决定我们应该在多大程度上看到描述性和更传统的代表之间的差异。在先前工作的基础上，研究人员提出了实质性代表的语境理论，解释了为什么政治语境应该特别影响描述性代表的行为，从而减轻了描述性代表和实质性代表之间的联系。研究人员使用拉丁美洲国家（阿根廷，玻利维亚，智利，哥伦比亚，哥斯达黎加，厄瓜多尔，巴拿马和秘鲁）的样本来测试理论论点，这些国家在三种不同的政治背景（即，政党控制的程度，政党类型和用于增加描述性代表性的制度机制）中存在跨国和时间差异，并且委员会的审议似乎在跨国上服务于相同的目的。1)设定政策辩论的条件，2)向选民发出信号，表明立法者正在为他们的利益而努力。该项目的实地研究将在每个国家的立法档案中进行，包括收集和扫描委员会辩论作为机器可读的文件，实证分析包括使用自动内容分析将文本转换为数据，以揭示代表演讲的模式。这个项目通过展示改变立法机构的“面貌”是否会对决策产生重大影响，作出了重大贡献。它将揭示从历史上代表性不足的群体中选出成员是否会对该群体的代表性产生影响，以及这些新当选的描述性代表是否与传统代表有所不同。更重要的是，该项目将探讨政治背景如何影响立法者的行为，并缓和描述性和实质性代表性之间的关系。这对理解政府如何影响日常生活及其对民主稳定的影响有着深远的影响。

Does better descriptive representation of traditionally underrepresented groups lead to better substantive representation of their interests in policy-making? In other words, do individuals elected to represent a group that has been previously underrepresented (e.g., the indigenous in Bolivia) demonstrate distinctly different policy views than those representatives who have traditionally held power? Does the strength of the link between descriptive and substantive representation depend on the types of institutional mechanisms designed to enhance descriptive representation, the types of parties descriptive representatives belong to, or the strength of party control over their behavior?This project will attempt to provide answers to these questions as they pertain to one important form of substantive representation: the expression of policy views of descriptive representatives in legislative deliberations. It examines the deliberative behavior of descriptive representatives both on more traditional issues commonly explored in political science literature (e.g., land rights for indigenous representatives in Latin America, or social welfare policy for black representatives in the U.S.) and a wide variety of political issues that are arguably more salient to the general public (e.g., foreign policy, tax policy, and healthcare policy). In doing so, it develops an original measure of substantive representation that maps patterns in speeches during committee debates to uncover whether representatives from underrepresented groups espouse significantly different policy views than representatives from historically represented groups. It will explain and show how the political context conditions legislator behavior and determines the extent to which we should see differences between descriptive and more traditional representatives.Building on previous work, the researcher proposes a contextual theory of substantive representation that accounts for why political context should affect the behavior of descriptive representatives in particular, thereby mitigating the link between descriptive and substantive representation. The researcher tests the theoretical argument using a sample of Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru) where there is cross-national and temporal variation across the three different political contexts (i.e., the extent of party control, the type of party, and the institutional mechanism used for increasing descriptive representation) and where the committee deliberations appear to serve the same purpose cross-nationally, which is 1) to set the terms of the policy debate and 2) to signal to constituents that legislators are working on their behalf. Field research for this project, which will be conducted in the legislative archives of each country, involves collecting and scanning committee debates as machine-readable documents, and the empirical analysis involves converting the text into data using automated content analysis to uncover patterns in speeches across representatives.This project makes a substantial contribution by demonstrating whether or not changing the 'face' of the legislature has a significant impact on policy-making. It will uncover if electing members from a historically underrepresented group has an impact on how that group is represented, and if these newly elected descriptive representatives are doing anything different than traditional representatives. More importantly, the project will explore how the political context affects legislator behavior and mitigates the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation. This has a profound impact on understanding just how government can influence everyday life and the effects it has on democratic stability.