Anouk Lloren

Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Poor Citizens in Switzerland

Over the past decade, a large number of studies have shown that in advanced democracies policymakers are more likely to represent the preferences of high-income citizens than the preferences of low-income citizens. In a quest to understand this income bias in substantive representation, several authors have recently suggested that the persistent descriptive underrepresentation of low-income groups in policymaking institutions may explain why political decisions so frequently are skewed toward the preferences of the affluent. However, although this is a plausible explanation, many previous studies dealing with the consequences of descriptive representation have failed to find an effect of policymakers’ incomes or social class backgrounds on their behavior in office. In this essay, we argue that descriptive representation may indeed have an effect on policymaking, yet for it to be consequential three necessary conditions must be satisfied.

The Unequal Representation of Income Groups and Direct Democracy

In many democracies, policymakers and policy outcomes are highly biased towards the preferences of the affluent, although they only constitute a minority of voters. As a consequence, scholars and practitioners alike have become increasingly interested in understanding why this is the case and what can be done about it. So far, most of the discussion has focused on how to modify elements of the representational system in order to increase the voice of the less privileged in the policymaking process. Our analysis shows that direct democracy might be an alternative to achieve this goal, as decisions that are more likely to be congruent with the preferences of the affluent than with those of the less affluent are considerably less common under direct democracy than under representative democracy.