Is Congress a Violation of the Norm of Political Equality?

When looking at any segment of our government, we can see that there exists a definite socio-economic inequality among our government leaders and the average United States citizen. In the Congressional branch of our United States government, we must ask ourselves, do the members of Congress carry out their representative responsibilities in a way that can be considered democratic?

The answer to this question is not straight forward and cannot be stated without some sort of an opinion. In congress, there exist two types of representatives, delegates and trustees. Delegates are often representatives who attempt to ‘mirror the views of his or her constituents’ while trustees ‘trust his or her own judgement to do what best for constituents, independently of what people might actually want” (Greenberg and Page). However, though delegates are more ‘for the people’ than trustees, they still are representative to particular classes due to the homogenous nature of Congressional representatives.

Members of Congress are traditionally from a wealthy, white, male background. Although over the past few decades this tradition has modernized a bit, our nation still is trapped within the bounds of a very homogenous congressional representation from gender, to race, to income, and even to sexual orientation. For example, African Americans make up only 11% of the body of Congress, even though they make up about 18% of the United States’ population. When looking at another minority, the United States ranks only 72^nd on the worlds list of women in national legislatures (Greenberg and Page). Both of the preceding facts help to prove that our Congress is not diversified enough to claim equal political representation for all. For evidence, take a look at the graphs below taken from ‘The Washington Post.”

Personally, I believe that with a homogenous Congress, our country is failing to represent fairly all of its citizens. Although the Democratic party, for example, is more diverse and works for the greater good of all, it still lacks great representation for many minorities within Congress.

For example, “many Americans who are not well represented- especially women, minorities, and low-income groups—believe that their interests would be heard if their numbers were substantially increased in Congress” (Greenberg and Page). The greatest issue with the lack of diversification in Congress is that our democracy is not holding up the ideals of political equality, which is one of the main elements of our American democracy.

According to Philip Bump of ‘The Washington Post,’ “The 114th Congress [was] one of the most diverse in American history, comprised of nearly 20 percent women and just over 17 percent of which is non-white. Which means, of course, that four out of five members of Congress are white and four out of five are men. Ergo, given the name of a member of Congress you can probably guess his or her gender and race” (Bump). Though slightly sarcastic and mocking at the lack of diversity within Congress, we must also read this and understand that there is a change that is happening within Congress, and although very slow, Congress is beginning to diversify. The problem is, however, will this trend stick? How can we claim we are truly a democratic nation if our nation’s minorities are not properly represented within one of the most important branches of our government? Do you believe that this diversification trend will continue, or do you see Congress’s diversity or homogeneity as a direct result of who leads the House and the Senate?

Works Cited:

Bump, Philip. “The New Congress Is 80 Percent White, 80 Percent Male and 92 Percent Christian.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 5 Jan. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/01/05/the-new-congress-is-80-percent-white-80-percent-male-and-92-percent-christian/?utm_term=.f11795bcc5fd.

Greenberg, Edward S., and Benjamin I. Page. The Struggle for Democracy. Pearson, 2018.

4 Responses to "Is Congress a Violation of the Norm of Political Equality?"

Langley Crisp says:

April 10, 2018 at 11:38 pm

Haley,

I greatly appreciate your thoughts about diversity within Congress and how this is representative of the American population. I believe that the diversification trend within Congress will continue, though most likely rather slowly. Eventually I believe that Congress will be a more accurate representative of the population – for the foreseeable future however, it will remain dominated by white males.

While I wish that Congress had more diversity, I understand the lack of diversity and the slow progression to become more diverse. For the first hundred years that Congress existed, women and minorities had little or no access to education. This would completely prevent them from being eligible for Congress, regardless of their valid ideas and patriotism. For over one hundred years, white males were the only people even considered for Congress. This created a certain almost cult-like mentality among white males in politics.

Once women and minorities gained access to education and therefore had credibility to be eligible for Congress, the precedent within the institution was already set. All incumbents were white males – these incumbents had an advantage due to the franking privilege and pork, among other things. Therefore, in 1916 when the first women was elected to the House, and in 1870, when the first black man was elected to the Senate, they were already at a complete disadvantage.

Overcoming this disadvantage seems difficult enough, however women and minorities also faced sexism and racism that would create a taboo revolving around their elections to office. These taboos, for the majority of people, arguably wore off in the 1970s and 1980s, although they do still exist today. This leaves less than 50 years where diversity in Congress was seen as a real possibility. Relative to the existence of Congress, this is not very long. Therefore, I can logically understand the lack of diversity in Congress.

The diversity in the 114th Congress is promising – I believe that Congress, and government as a whole in the United States, will become more diverse in the years to come.
Thomas Cody says:

April 10, 2018 at 11:42 pm

Haley,
Thank you for a very fascinating article. I agree that it is hard to say government represents the people when the majority of members are still wealthy, white males. It is good to see that this is changing, but the fact that it is taking this long to do so is startling. I wonder how much of this has to do with our political parties that rule over government. This makes it harder for someone who does not have his or her foot already in the door in the political world to make a real run at office, and those who are already in politics are overwhelmingly wealthy, white males. Fundraising definitely seems like a contributor to this in the same way. Without more changes like campaign finance reform, I do not think this change of demographics in congress will really speed up to much in the near future.
Marc Bosch Valentines says:

April 12, 2018 at 12:52 am

Haley,

Thank you for this great blog post. I thought it was really interesting and that it brought into the discussion a number of issues that are of vital importance today in Congress. While the population is getting more and more diverse, Congress does not reflect such a thing yet. Therefore, both Democrats and Republicans should make an effort to include more diverse candidates so that there could be a more accurate representation of the population. Another issue you mentioned is the economic inequality among the median citizen and the congressmen and congresswomen. Most of them are rich or at least do not have to worry about money because they have a pretty stable economic situation, therefore, they are in Congress because they want to do something and not just because of the money. This is not something necessarily bad but it poses an interesting question. If there is not an equal representation of the population in Congress, legislators do not have any incentive to do policies that benefit the lower segment of the population as they are not directly affected from it and thus would not be empathetic enough to be able to decide what policies are good for them. All in all, I am completely convinced that in the future there will be a more diverse scenario in Congress but for that, there still have to happen a handful of years because changes in Congress are not fast per se.
Samuel Lambeth says:

April 14, 2018 at 11:15 am

Haley,

You chose to discuss an important topic and pointed out some major flaws of our “democratic system.” The facts stated in your post are 100% accurate and not subjective, which means that the United States Congress’ lack of representatives from minority groups does not benefit all Americans. As law-abiding citizens, how are we supposed to demonstrate the value of equality if our own legislative body doesn’t reflect the same? To address your question asking if this trend will stick, I strongly disagree that the majority of congress will always be represented by white males as the level of diversity continues to increase in our general population. A recent article that I read actually addressed the rising number of women running for a seat in congress. The National Public Radio Inc published that a record of 309 women are running for seats in the House of Representatives as of April 6, 2018. This number is a 90% increase from 2016 as the number of men currently running is 1,103. Therefore, as events and cultural trends shift, such as having the first female presidential nominee in 2016, the “dominant while male” trend in congress will most likely diminish. Great job on your post!

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/13/601866062/there-are-a-record-breaking-309-women-house-candidates-and-1-103-men

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