Minority Report: Evaluating Political Equality in AmericaAre the views of Latinos and African Americans underrepresented in our federal government? For that matter, what does it mean to be represented equitably? Rather than taking for granted a single answer to these complex questions, John Griffin and Brian Newman use different measures of political equality to reveal which groups get what they want from government and what factors lead to their successes. One of the first books to compare the representation of both African Americans and Latinos to that of whites, Minority Report shows that congressional decisions and federal policy tend to mirror the preferences of whites as a group and as individuals better than the preferences of either minority group, even after accounting for income disparities. This is far from the whole story, though, and the authors’ multifaceted approach illustrates the surprising degree to which group population size, an issue’s level of importance, the race or ethnicity of an office holder, and electoral turnout can affect how well government action reflects the views of each person or group. Sure to be controversial, Minority Report ultimately goes beyond statistical analyses to address the root question of what equal representation really means. |
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Minority Report: Evaluating Political Equality in America John D. Griffin,Brian Newman No preview available - 2008 |
Minority Report: Evaluating Political Equality in America John D. Griffin,Brian Newman No preview available - 2008 |
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107th Congress 2000 National Annenberg Achen African Ameri African American constituents African American ideology African American MCs African American voters American or Latino Americans and Latinos Americans and whites Annenberg Election Survey better represented big losers chapter citizens closer than whites column compared to whites conservative Democratic MCs descriptive representation descriptively represented differences economic security electoral districts equally represented estimated Hispanic income inequality issue domains ity groups Journal of Political Latino MCs Latino voters LCCR legislators Lewis and Poole liberal Lublin measures minority groups NAES National Annenberg Election National Election Studies NHLA points closer policy winners political equality political representation Political Science preferences proportion proximity gap race race-conscious egalitarian racial and ethnic represented by African Republican responsiveness roll-call votes salient issues senators spending standard of equality tion turnout Uhlaner Verba w-nominate scores welfare white constituents white ideology Whites African whites and African whites and Latinos