What is the composition of the Congress in terms of race, sex, and political party?
Members of the United States Congress--the House and the Senate--are elected to represent the people of the fifty states. But does the Congress look like America? How many men and women are there in the Congress? What is the partisan and racial composition of the House? Do these characteristics of the Congress have any influence on its ability (or inability) to effectively represent the people?
The current Congress is the 110th to convene since the ratification of the Constitution (each Congress sits for the two-year period between House elections). The last congressional elections took place in November of 2006. The figures presented below reflect the composition of the Congress as of January 2007.
Partisan Composition of the 110th Congress |
There are currently 233 Republicans and 202 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the Senate, there are 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats and 2 Independents. This is the first time the Democrats have held the majority in the House since 1994. In terms of percentages, 54% of House members and 49% of Senators are Democrats.
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Men and Women in the 110th Congress |
While the partisan composition of the Congress is fairly close to that of the electorate, there are larger disparities between the Congress and the general citizenry in term of sex and race. In the House, there are currently 365 men and 70 women. In the Senate, there are 16 women and 84 men. |
Currently, whites comprise % of the membership of the House and 94% of the membership of the Senate. The racial composition of the House is summarized in the table below.
Racial Composition of the 110th Congress |
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White |
364 |
94 |
Black |
40 |
1 |
Hispanic |
23 |
3 |
| Asian | 5 |
2 |
The more important question is whether or not these statistics make a difference in the way the Congress functions as a representative body. The most obvious (and short) answer is, yes. However, the way these characteristics of the House matter is not always straightforward. In fact, the composition of the House as a whole is comparatively less important than the degree to which individual House members and Senators reflect the views and characteristics of the people in their individual districts or states. Decisions in Congress are made collectively, but representation occurs primarily at the level of the individual member.
While some people believe that a representative should, at the individual level, share important physical characteristics with the people he or she represents, others hold that "descriptive" or "demographic" representation is much less than "substantive" representation. From this perspective, a white woman could represent a black man or a Hispanic man could represent a black woman if the focus was promoting the interests of the represented individual or individuals. Indeed, James Madison observed in The Federalist No. 10 that the true test of a representative is his or her ability to make difficult decisions that promote the long-term best interests of the people back home. A representative government, he wrote, ought to:
. . . refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the same purpose.
It is likely that Madison would have thought any discussion of the demographic dimensions of representation irrelevant. Because America is much more diverse today than it was during Madison's lifetime, however, a significant number of voters expect their representatives to not only think like them, but to look like them as well.
