Why working-class people account for around 1% of lawmakers in the US – and only 2% in the average democracy around the world
Campaigning anywhere for any office at any level of government is personally burdensome.
Working-class individuals constitute around 1% of lawmakers in the United States and a mere 2% in most democracies globally, despite major political parties often claiming allegiance to the working class. This underrepresentation significantly impacts safety net programs, business regulations, and worker protections, which are reportedly weaker when working-class individuals do not hold significant political office.
The shortage of working-class politicians arises from several factors. First, there are not many politicians with a working-class background, such as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, and Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson, who was a logger. Globally, figures like Sweden's former Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and Brazil's former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also illustrate this point.
However, working-class individuals make up only about 1% of average state legislatures and 2% of Congress, a similar underrepresentation worldwide.
Research indicates that various factors prevent working-class individuals from entering politics. Despite having comparable qualifications, work experience, and election-winning potential to white-collar professionals, working-class candidates frequently hesitate to run due to concerns about personal sacrifices, such as time away from work and financial instability during campaigns.
Furthermore, political parties and interest groups often fail to recruit and support working-class candidates, as they recognize the challenges these individuals face in the electoral process.
Potential solutions include targeted candidate training programs, political scholarships, and policy proposals like institutional quotas or randomly selected citizen juries that could facilitate working-class individuals' path to political office. However, without reforms addressing the barriers that keep working-class people off the ballot, the underrepresentation of this demographic in political institutions is likely to persist.
Written by urgent.news from The Conversation's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
