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Does Paying Politicians More Promote Economic Diversity in Legislatures?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2016

NICHOLAS CARNES  and
ERIC R. HANSEN
NICHOLAS CARNES*
Affiliation:
Duke University
ERIC R. HANSEN*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*
Nicholas Carnes is Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University ([email protected]).
Eric R. Hansen is Ph.D. candidate, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ([email protected]).
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Abstract

If politicians in the United States were paid better, would more middle- and working-class people become politicians? Reformers often argue that the low salaries paid in state and local governments make holding office economically infeasible for lower-income citizens and contribute to the enduring numerical under-representation of the working class in our political institutions. Of course, raising politicians’ salaries could also make political office more attractive to affluent professionals, increasing competition for office and ultimately discouraging lower-income citizens from running and winning. In this article, we test these hypotheses using data on the salaries and economic backgrounds of state legislators. Contrary to the notion that paying politicians more promotes economic diversity, we find that the descriptive representation of the working class is the same or worse in states that pay legislators higher salaries. These findings have important implications for research on descriptive representation, political compensation, and political inequality.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 110 , Issue 4 , November 2016 , pp. 699 - 716
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

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