Democratic Listening? Race and Representation in Local Politics.

Abstract

Political theorist Andrew Dobson argues that taking listening seriously as a political activity strengthens democracy since it enhances institutional legitimacy, helps political actors address disagreements, and contributes to political empowerment. However, the subject of listening, especially listening that occurs in face-to-face interactions between constituents and legislators, has generally been ignored in political science scholarship. To be clear, scholars of political representation have looked at legislative responses to public opinion and written constituent communications, and they have found evidence of race-related discrimination in “figurative” listening, especially those that occur in “private” email exchanges between legislators and constituents. Do race-related considerations affect legislative listening in meetings where a legislator’s behavior is transparent to the public? In this dissertation, I argue that despite the publicity of constituent-official interactions in city council meetings, race or shared racial identity between legislators and constituents affects the legislators’ propensity to listen, in the literal sense, to vocally active constituents in these meetings. Through an analysis of data collected from direct observations and video-recordings of public meetings and interviews with elected officials, I find some support for my argument. By looking at the non-verbal activities of legislators (texting, reading, etc.), I find that White legislators spend a lesser proportion of time being distracted when White constituents speak than when their Black counterparts do so. Through interviews, I find that Black legislators understand better the messages of non-White constituents than those of their White counterparts. Finally, in examining the verbal response patterns of local legislators in city council meetings, I find that the effect of race on legislative responsiveness is conditional upon whether or not constituents speak about race-related or legislative issues. The voices of minority communities have been historically marginalized in the country’s democratic processes. This dissertation offers a novel approach to studying how this marginalization may be persisting in the literal sense. Looking at different ways that legislators engage in discriminatory listening is important not only because this discrimination leads to distorted patterns of legislative actions on constituent concerns, but also because it has implications for citizens’ perceptions of political efficacy and institutional legitimacy.