Taking diverse backgrounds into account in studies of political ambition and representation

Men from elite backgrounds dominate the group of people who seek and hold political office. We discuss the ways that homophily of backgrounds and networks can damage the quality of democracy. In doing so, we argue that broadening and deepening discussions of legislative diversity are essential to making arguments about who should seek political office. We then introduce a comprehensive and flexible measure of diversity of political leadership that allows scholars to take intersecting identities into account simultaneously. Using a dataset of legislators’ backgrounds in national and provincial office in Argentina, we test the adaptability of the measure to different institutions – such as legislatures and legislative committees – that vary substantially in their size. Our results uncover enclaves of legislative politics that are the most and least diverse and, in doing so, demonstrate the need to recruit and select representatives from a wide set of background characteristics to improve democracy.