Mobilizing political engagement and participation in diverse societies: The impact of institutional arrangements

Calls for group or descriptive representation in a democracy-when representative institutions share proportionally the sociodemographic characteristics of the population-are based on several different arguments. First, underrepresentation of minority groups may occur from discriminatory practices, and enhancing or assuring group representation is one way of overcoming this systematic discrimination. If people belonging to a minority community express preferences as members of that community, electoral arrangements ought not to prevent these interests from being expressed (Kymlicka 1995). Second, representation of minority interests is assumed to influence policy outcomes. Although Hannah Pitkin (1967) questions the effectiveness of descriptive representation, others, such as Jane Mansbridge (1999, 2000), suggest that descriptive representation can serve to facilitate communication between representative and the represented and to "crystallize" unexpressed minority interests that may not be on the political agenda. Third, not only may policy consequences be influenced by descriptive representation but the actual behavior and attitudes of minority populations may be positively influenced by being descriptively represented (see, for example, Bobo and Gilliam 1990).