When Do the Rich Win?

A MAJOR THEORETICAL JUSTIFICATION for representative democracy is that it puts power in the hands of the people. Political scientists have tested whether this actually is true by assessing the degree to which policy reflects citizens’ preferences. Recent work finds that public policy is frequently responsive to the will of the people, but that there is significant variation across policy domains.1 There may be variation in responsiveness to different people as well. Indeed, recent work suggests that policy is responsive primarily, or even solely, to the richest Americans, at the expense of the middle class and poor.2 The finding of such pronounced inequality in political representation clearly contrasts with the normative basis for representative democracy. It is not entirely surprising, however. The rich have more time and money to give to campaigns, and to politics more generally.3 They also tend to vote more often, and evidence suggests that voters are better represented than nonvoters.4 That the rich are better represented than the poor is what we might therefore expect. For similar reasons, we might expect that the middle also are better represented than the poor.