Who is best represented? Congruence between members of the parliament and segments of the Brazilian electorate

Abstract

An emerging line of research indicates that in many democracies members of the parliament under-represent certain groups. Hoping to expand this research agenda in Brazil, we analyzed whether the degree of congruence between preferences of representatives and voters varies across segments of the populace and, if so, which groups are best represented. Our expectation was that congruence would be smaller for socially disadvantaged groups, which have fewer resources for political participation and for the exercise of other forms of influence. We use the distance of preferences in voter-representative pairs (dyads), considered the most suitable measure for collective representation. Our analysis considers 11 issues in the period 2004-2014. The results confirm the expectation; notably, the representative advantage of the more educated seems to be greater than that of the more affluent.

representation; political inequality; congruence; affluence bias; schooling bias