pros and cons of descriptive representation
Thibaut, J. W., Walker, L., et al. pros and cons of descriptive representation. By using descriptive research in conjunction with other research methods, researchers can gain a more complete understanding of a particular topic or phenomenon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. See appendix (Supplementary material) for detailed comparison of CCAP and MTurk data. Mailbox 100 Conservatives and right-wing liberals have traditionally opposed it, while left-wing political parties and social movements often regard quotas for marginalized groups as decisive progressive measures in struggles for democracy and justice. Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). As political parties, legislative committees, and voters weigh the pros and cons of descriptive representation, this analysis argues for attention to the specific historical contexts that make descriptive representation most useful. pros and cons of descriptive representation. Pros 1. Collective vs. dyadic representation in Congress. One area of the voting experience that has received little attention is descriptive representation. When a person is unaware they are being observed it reduces change in behavior, which can occur when if they are aware that they are being observed. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The effect of black voters interacting with a black poll worker when compared to a non-black poll worker increases the probability of being very confident in ballot accuracy from a range of 8 to 10 percentage points. So if we did a study on say How many gangs are in Los Angeles? This will give us an answer of how many of something, like a situation that is being studied. The formal charging of a government official with "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions Gay, C. (2002). It is possible that subjects evaluations of these rates of descriptive representation depend on the type of community they are thinking of. The results of the analysis suggest that black voters whose primary interaction on Election Day is with a black poll worker express greater confidence that their ballot, ballots across their local jurisdiction, and ballots across their state are counted accurately. Black faces in the mirror: African Americans and their representatives in the US Congress. Descriptive representation is hotly contested. Barnes, T. D. & Burchard, S. M. (2012). Casellas, J. P., & Wallace, S. J. Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? WAPPP's Gender Action Portal (GAP) team is committed to intersectionality as a core guiding principle for our work in gender policy research translation. Congresswomen and symbolic representation. Naturalistic observational research is important because it allows researchers to observe people in a natural habitat without any variable manipulation. Naturalistic observations were used by Charles Darwin during his research on chimpanzee; nonetheless, Charles Darwin was so fascinated by observing how primates and humans are acting in similar ways and having influence to another. It describes the characteristics of a citizens or circumstance being studied. 3. The mission of the fellowship is to support and advance academic and practitioner-scholars in their gender-related research. A current officeholder. 2, At the same time, greater inclusion can also lead toward higher levels of extremism within the government, while encouraging more gridlock if the political parties are unable to find a pathway toward compromise. 0. More people feel like they are adequately represented under this type of structure. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 623638. Several countries, since 2016, have elected representatives and leaders that have promoted isolationist views. 2. Hood III, and Mason Reece, Descriptive Representation in Election Administration. Wh, The failed NFL diversity rule corporate America loves, Practicing DEI: A Conversation with HKS Alums, International Womens Day Community Breakfast, Harvard Alumni Allyship Series: International Women's Day, But the Fellows Are Simply Diversity Hires! How Organizational Contexts Influence Status Beliefs, 3 Negotiation Myths Still Harming Womens Careers. In addition to the important administrative role that they play, poll workers also contribute to the way voters view elections and their outcomes. The Women and Public Policys faculty, research fellows, and students are committed to advancing women and gender equity globally. As its name says, this way of investigating describes, it does not explain. However, if researchers want to understand why something is happening, they may need to use other research methods. Different from an absolute majority, a full majority brings more voices into each debate, allowing for a diversity of opinions to be heard. As I write, descriptive representation by gender improves substantive outcomes for women in every polity for which we have a measure. ; ; Many communities under this system can come away feeling like they dont matter to the governing coalition. Advantages and disadvantages of descriptive research. Constituency influence in Congress. In most cases, descriptive research gets data on quantities, notqualities. Under a standard system of proportional representation, voters are able to cast a single transferable vote, or an STV. New York: Free Press. Sociological Forum, 8(2), 243271. Engendering politics the impact of descriptive representation on womens political engagement in sub-Saharan Africa. When the implementation of descriptive representation involves some costs in other values, paying those costs makes most sense in these specific historical contexts. The gender gap in Latin America: Contextual and individual influences on gender and political participation. Part of descriptive statistics is to characterize which model the variable presents to an observer. Descriptive statistics can be useful for two purposes: 1) to provide basic information about variables in a dataset and 2) to highlight potential relationships between variables. Canada, France, and India join the U.S. and the United Kingdom as being an alternative structure. How Do People React When They Encounter Problems While Voting? Due to the relatively small number of African Americans in our sample, we report 90% confidence intervals throughout for both white and black subjects. Just 5 countries in the world today use a system that is based on plurality voting. Hayes, M., Hibbing, M.V. RT @Kennedy_School: According to a recent study by @HKS_PeopleLab researchers, including HKS's @ElizabethLinos, government communications c, Join @ipinst @swiss_un & @INTGenderChamps for a discussion on Using Innovation & Technology to Ad. Our "Oval Office" training program inspires and supports nontraditional candidates to run for public office. Do majority-minority districts maximize substantive black representation in congress? The three most common descriptive statistics can be displayed graphically or pictorially and are measures of: Graphical/Pictorial Methods Measures of Central Tendency Some of the pros of grades include: Standardization and universally recognized: In virtually any corner of the globe, people will understand what an A, B, C, D, or F letter grade stands for. Instead, proper representation for some is rooted in the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, and sexual identity of the representatives themselves. The delegate theory of representation. They allow to formulate hypotheses, as well as provide a large amount of valuable data for the development of future investigations. Until a candidate reaches more than the set share of votes, no one is declared a winner. (2009). New Haven: Yale University press. The downsides of using descriptive research include that it is limiting, cannot identify cause and effect, and may be biased. both the seat in the House of Representative and the Senate (Geiger et al). The upsides of using descriptive research include that it is easy to conduct, can be used to gather large amounts of data, and can provide a foundation for further research. descriptive representation for both intrinsic and (perceived) instrumental reasons. Race, representation, and trust: Changes in attitudes after the election of a black mayor. https://www.linkedin.com/company/wappphks/, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCII4gHJhDfpGjlojaME1bHQ, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/women-and-public-policy-program-seminar-s. An experimental comparison study in which participants are allocated to treatment/intervention or control/placebo groups using a random mechanism (see randomisation). Today, the Journals Division publishes more than 70 journals and hardcover serials, in a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, education, the biological and medical sciences, and the physical sciences. There are two ways to carry out a pre-experimental design, which are as follows: In the case of descriptive research, there are three techniques to carry it out: Observation is one of the most used techniques when conducting descriptive research. Naturalistic observation also provides a lot of raw data which can allow us to learn more about the human psyche. Tyler, T. R. (1990). In addition, it allows obtaining data, or information, of the quantitative or qualitative type: Using the case study it is possible to carry out a slightly more detailed analysis of the event, as well as to study in detail groups or subjects separately. Constituency, party, and representation in Congress. The seldom receive access to the majority coalition and rarely earn an absolute majority, but there is always the possibility that their voiced opinions will gain traction with the general population. Descriptive investigations, unlike other types of investigations, carry out their study without altering or manipulating any of the variables of the phenomenon, limiting themselves only to their measurement and description. Descriptive representation allows for adequate communication in contexts of mistrust What is the relate-ability benefit of Descriptive Representation People will be more likely to communicate more with someone with whom they share a racial identity. The models have parameters which may be useful in understanding the focus of the matter such as a mean, standard deviation of the variable and standard deviation of the mean as examples. We would say that a black constituent is descriptively (1997). Correspondence to The effect of black congressional representation on political participation. the six voting members of the House being women. Under proportional representation, everyone would have an opportunity to have their views represented in their government in some way. They basically consist of making a description of the variables to be measured in a phenomenon, and analyzing the incidence at the time that event occurs. The researcher usually has high level of control over research variables. This is particularly true in federal elections when the more than 3,000 counties, parishes, and boroughs in the United States individually conduct elections that are used to determine outcomes for the states in which they are embedded and the nation as a whole. 4. 1996: 2). Advantages And Disadvantages Of Descriptive Research, Different research methods have contrasting directions and distinct heights of gravity. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution. Descriptive research is the right choice when researchers want to describe a phenomenon or situation. Constituency opinion and congressional behavior: A reexamination of the Miller-Stokes representation data. Book Guinier, L. (1995). (2010). Latinos and substantive representation in the US House of Representatives: Direct, indirect, or nonexistent? descriptive representation pros and consadvanced spelling bee words for adults. 50 Intense Pros and Cons of Dropping the Atomic Bomb, 20 Intriguing Pros and Cons of Becoming a State National, Pros And Cons Of Higher Education For Police Officers. The main question I consider in the paper is how to overcome the essentialism of descriptive representation. Successfully determining who wins and loses in an election involves aseries of systemsthat, while operating simultaneously, function independent of each other. This article is called What Happens to Mental Health Treatment During Pregnancy? Advantages: unbiased distribution of confounders; blinding more likely; randomisation facilitates statistical analysis. Gomez( 2006)argues naturalistic observations of primates show that how certain objects is intrinsic part of primate lives, from simple food collecting process as taking certain organic fruits. (2010). Here are some of the most important characteristics of descriptive research: In descriptive research, the researcher has no control over any of the variables that affect the event or problem under investigation. Miller, W. E., & Stokes, D. E. (1963). Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. There were pre-determined characteristics that the researchers wrote down on a spreadsheet, however, specific behaviors were recorded as they happened (i.e., the type of reaction that resulted from each person who picked up the card). TheMIT Election Data and Science Labhelps highlight new research and interesting ideas in election science. There are many benefits of including minorities of power in decision-making so-called descriptive representation. You gain tremendous benefits by working with a random sample drawn from a population. The advantages to his method are; realistic natural behaviours, low demand characteristics, can generate new ideas for research and test existing findings. The advantages of descriptive research include that it is easy to conduct, can be used to gather large amounts of data, and can provide a baseline for future research. 4. That means the 49% of people who voted Republican will be represented by somebody for whom they did not vote. Are Russian troops using sexual violence as a weapon? It makes things easier for extreme parties to gain representation. The substantive results are unchanged when we run the analyses on each dependent variable separately. For example, those living in diverse communities might find 5 black representatives too low, whereas those living in homogeneous white communities might find 5 black representatives too high. Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. That means those who serve in the government are less likely to focus on local issues as they have no local representation responsibilities. However, descriptive research can also be limiting. Solano Verde Water District. 2. For instance: watching a person (or people) order food, hold a door open for another person, or greet someone would be considered a few examples of naturalistic observation. Naturalistic Observation is a frequently utilized research method in which one observes a certain behavior. It reduces the effects of extremism in politics. These descriptive representations reflect the usage characteristics of the end product, what the owner (s) are going to do with the end product, or how they will use it once they get it in their possession. In her classic work The Concept of Representation, Hanna Pitkin establishes four aspects of representation: formalistic, substantive, descriptive, and symbolic (Pitkin 1967).. Scholars normally define substantive representation as having one's policy views expressed by an elected . Limits of Descriptive Representation. " The Pros and Cons of Gender Quota Laws: What Happens When You Kick Men Out and . For a discussion of the representativeness and validity of MTurk as a data source, see Buhrmester etal. Behind the mule: Race and class in African-American politics. Usually, the cross-sectional or transectional design is the most used to carry out this type of research, although it is also possible to use the pre-experimental design. In a PR system, the congressional districts are much bigger, voters focus more on. The American Political Science Review, 165177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-016-9345-9, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-016-9345-9. In this paper, we employ a novel experimental design to investigate how citizens feel about the relative importance of descriptive and substantive representation. We would also like to thank attendees at Vanderbilts Experimental Methods Speaker Series as well as anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. In most cases, it is simply impossible to measure the entire population to understand its properties. - Volume 55 Issue 2. In, Correlational research is a type of non-experimental research in which investigators measure two variables and, Free association is one of the methods most closely linked to the psychoanalysisof Sigmund Freud, All Rights Reserved | View Non-AMP Version, Advantages and disadvantages of descriptive research, Observational study definition characteristics techniques, Methodological framework definition/structure/examples, What are Research questions how to approach a study examples, What is Correlational research characteristics types and examples, What is free association origin contents of the unconscious problems. Gender & Conflict Gender Action Portal Race and turnout: Does descriptive representation in state legislatures increase minority voting? The article focuses on descriptive representation, which is a fundamental theoretical concept underpinning the introduction of gender quotas. Gay, C. (2001). The analysis demonstrates that similar to other public policy spaces, descriptive representation in the administration of elections matters. Descriptive representation describes the extent to which public officials reflect the demographic composition of the constituents that they serve. These three measures are all highly correlated and the index has a standardized \(\alpha\) of 0.89 for Study 1, 0.86 for Study 2, and 0.91 for study 3. In many areas of public administration and policy, the importance of descriptive representation or shared identity and perceived shared experience for racial and ethnic minorities is well documented. Congress in black and white. In light of recent administrative irregularities that have reduced the confidence thatblack votershave in elections, the value of seeing a reflection of oneself when entering the polling location to cast a ballot should not be minimized. Using observation, qualitative data can be collected on the habits of supermarket customers regarding the purchases they make in it. While Candidate gender and womens psychological engagement in politics. Descriptive statistics on the dependent variables can be found in the Appendix (Supplementary material). Public Opinion Quarterly, 48(4), 741756. Request Permissions, Published By: The University of Chicago Press. Supporters of descriptive representation anticipate that descriptive representatives behave in distinct ways through which they are able to provide better substantive representation than non-descriptive representatives. While descriptive research can be a powerful tool, it has its pros and cons. People who were part of the study had experienced some medication error in their work unit, with dose errors being the most frequent and the number of staff giving to the event of medication errors. More is better: The influence of collective female descriptive representation on external efficacy. . As a society, we perform naturalistic observation on a daily basis whether we realize it or not. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. helvetia 20 franc gold coin 1947 value; pros and cons of descriptive representation. In this system, the voter would rank the candidates on their ballot based on choice. Advantages and disadvantages of descriptive research. Bridgett Kingis an associate professor and Director of the Master of Public Administration Program at Auburn University. American Journal of Political Science, 511535. Given this, confidence in the accuracy of elections and the outcomes that they produce requires that voters trust not only their local processes and procedures, but also those across their state and the nation.
