Race and Legislative Responsiveness in City Council Meetings. Issue 6 (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoang, Bai Linh
• Is Part Of: Urban affairs review. Volume 55:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 1579
• Page End: 1611
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: descriptive representation -- race and urban politics -- public meetings -- city councils -- political participation; City planning -- Periodicals; Aménagement urbain; Développement urbain; Planification urbaine; Politique urbaine; Recherche; Sociologie urbaine; Urbanisme; Ville; États-Unis; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 307.76
• DOI: 10.1177/1078087418762056
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1078-0874

Abstract

Legislative responsiveness under description representation, even at the local level, is often conceptualized as how elites act on or comply with the requests or preferences of minority constituents. In this article, I look at and evaluate a neglected but important dimension of responsiveness. Specifically, I investigate the impact of race on the verbal responses that legislators provide to constituents who speak at local public meetings. Through an analysis of data collected from city council minutes and direct observations of council meetings, I find a lack of evidence for the independent effect of race on legislative responsiveness in these meetings. However, I do find that the impact of race is conditional on the statements expressed by constituents.