Descriptive representation is often held important because of its assumed effects on substantial representation. While a lot of research descriptively focused on who represents who, we know much less about the underlying link between descriptive representation and substantial representation, especially at the local level, where it is more likely to be elected for a particular topic, and the bond between voter and elected is more closely compared to other political layers.
In this paper, we ask whether city counsellors’ varying characteristics such as their profession, age, or gender affect the substantial representation of different groups they represent: e.g., pensioners. We place a particular focus on how the profession is reflected in the topics of the respective council member enquiries.
Analyzing patterns of parliamentary questioning across different institutional and political contexts, we rely on a novel dataset of 7000 parliamentary questions in 13 German city councils. The study uses a supervised classification to categorize group representation and positioning of political actors towards the interests of several societal groups. We apply multilevel models evaluating the link between descriptive and substantial representation. Our results reveal a connection between city counsellors’ characteristics and their likelihood to represent a particular group’s interests.