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C H A P T E R T E N Dimensions of Representation and the Congressional Black Caucus KENNY J. WHITBY T HE CURRENT DEBATE over African American representation in the political science profession runs parallel to the debate over the value of racial diversity in legislative institutions. Both debates center around an important question: What are the appropriate mechanisms to ensure that racial minorities will have an adequate voice in the decision-making process? In both cases, decision makers have struggled to find the appropriate remedy for the underrepresentation of racial minorities in governing bodies. Nowhere is the debate over African American representation more evident than in the controversy surrounding the significance of racial diversity in Congress . The current maelstrom over racial representation is in large measure a function of redistricting aimed at increasing minority representation in Congress. Indeed, after the 1990s round of redistricting, the size of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) grew by nearly one-third in the 103rd Congress (see Table 10.1). Since then, the size of the CBC has remained relatively constant, largely as a byproduct of affirmative racial redistricting. Students of legislative and minority politics have taken note of these developments and have expended much energy examining the effects of race on minority representation. The number of papers, articles, and books on black representation in Congress has grown considerably. Since the early 1990s, for example, several influential books have been published on the topic (Canon 1999; Fenno 2003; Lublin 1997; Singh 1998; Swain 1993; Tate 2003; Whitby 1997). In addition, William Clay, former congressman and co-founding member of the CBC, offers a good insider’s account of its birth and internal operations in his 1993 work, Just Permanent Interests: Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1991. Furthermore, special conferences have been devoted exclusively to exploring the dynamics of minority political representation. In May 2003, for instance, the Center for the Study of African American Politics at the University of Rochester sponsored a conference on racial representation. In part, the conference focused on the contributions of Richard Fenno and his seminal work on representation. Fenno’s research on the different representational styles of House members in Home Styles: House Members in Their Districts (1978) has served as the foundation for many subsequent studies on black congressional representation (e.g., Canon 1999; Swain 1993; Tate 2003). Twenty-five years after the publication of Home Styles, Fenno published Going Home: Black Representatives and Their Constituencies (2003), further testimony to this lively and important area of research. This chapter offers an assessment of the CBC from the perspective of three dimensions of representation: descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation. This approach represents a departure from previous assessments that detail the origins, evolution, operations, organizational structure, and accomplishments of the Caucus (Barnett 1975, 1982; Champagne and Rieselbach 1995; Clay 1993; Henry 1977; Jones 1987; Poinsett 1973; R. Smith 1981). The objective here is to use this analysis of dimensions of representation to point out some of the strengths and weaknesses in the literature in the hopes that this overview will serve as blueprint for future research on this important topic. The chapter proceeds in the following manner. The first section discusses the theoretical framework for this overview of the Caucus. In the second part, the CBC is evaluated in the context of each dimension of representation. The chapter concludes by offering a broad assessment and points to areas for future research. Framework The study of the CBC is inextricably linked to the concept known as representation . In other words, the CBC is a race-based informal organization seeking to promote the interests of racial minorities within the confines of a representative institution. Researchers have come to understand that representation is a multifaceted concept with different meanings. Three dimensions of representation have commanded particular attention in political science. These dimensions are defined by Hanna Pitkin in her influential book The Concept of Representation (1967). They serve as a guide for scholarly analysis on representation and for the assessment of the CBC in this chapter. The first dimension is descriptive representation. This dimension suggests that the social characteristics of those who serve in legislative assemblies ought to reflect the social diversity of the country’s population. In the context of this chapter , descriptive representation means that the membership of Congress should approach symmetry with the proportion of African Americans in the general population. Whether legislative assemblies should reflect the racial diversity of the general...

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