Why Are There So Many Lawyers in Congress
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6300293 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Adam Bonica (0000-0002-3004-9441, Stanford University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 253-289 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Legislative Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0362-9805 • E-ISSN: 1939-9162 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/lsq.12265 |
| OpenAlex | W2575301461 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 33 |
| References cited | 32 |
Scholars have long sought to explain the overrepresentation of lawyers in Congress. This article draws on a wealth of data to explore the causes and consequences of this representational imbalance. While lawyers enter politics at higher rates, self‐selection at best provides a partial explanation. Conditional on running, lawyers win at twice the rate of candidates from other backgrounds. Contrary to prevailing theories in the literature, voters do not reward candidates with backgrounds in law. Rather, lawyers win because of a sizable competitive advantage in early fundraising, owing in large part to their professional networks. This study has important implications for who runs for office, who wins, and the demographic composition of Congress. It also identifies an underexplored mechanism by which the US system of campaign finance sustains deep representational imbalances
Campaign finance · Economics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Mechanism (biology · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Public relations · Selection (genetic algorithm · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Sports, Gender, and Society
Unequal Democracies
Career Rewards for Part‐Time Politicians
Measuring Descriptive Representation
Lawyers, Career Goals, and the Gender Gap in Political Ambition
Do ministers’ occupational and social class backgrounds influence social spending
The Selling of Experience in the 2022 Congressional Elections
Sources of Candidate Fundraising Affect Perceptions of Electability
Challenging the State? Lawyers and the Reformed Administrative Appeals System in Japan
Lawyers as Lawmakers
Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness
Influence of Interest Group Affiliations on Legislative Performance
Why parties can benefit from promoting occupational diversity in legislatures
The super rich and the rest
Measuring Strategic Positioning in Congressional Elections
Like ’Em Rich? Public Perceptions and Opinions of Politicians’ Wealth
How to Cautiously Uncover the “Black Box” of Machine Learning Models for Legislative Scholars
The impact of occupational background on issue representation
The Economic Background of City Councilmembers
Fighting for Majorities? Explaining the Development of Caucus Fund-Raising in American Legislatures
Job Talk
We Didn’t Know What We Were Eating Tomorrow
Conceptualizing and measuring early campaign fundraising in congressional elections
Primary Barriers to Working Class Representation
Seeking the Public Good
Political (Over)Representation of Public Sector Employees and the Double-Motive Hypothesis
Who Enters Politics and Why
The Economic Backgrounds of Politicians
Evaluating (in)experience in congressional elections
The Consequences of Elite Action Against Elections
Early Money and Strategic Candidate Exit
The Global Legislators Database
Competition in Congressional Elections
Women's Representation and the Gendered Pipeline to Power
White-Collar Government
Multivariate and Propensity Score Matching Software with Automated Balance Optimization
A Political Economy Model of Congressional Careers
Women in the Legal Profession, 1970-2010
The U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag
How Judicial Qualification Ratings May Disadvantage Minority and Female Candidates
Information and Wasted Votes
Money and votes reconsidered
Lawyers in Politics
Gender Stereotypes, Same-Gender Preferences, and Organizational Variation in the Hiring of Women
Estimating the Effect of Campaign Spending on Senate Election Outcomes Using Instrumental Variables
Does the Numerical Underrepresentation of the Working Class in Congress Matter
Effectiveness of Negative Campaigning in U.S. Senate Elections
Party Control of Party Primaries
Causal Inference in Conjoint Analysis
"Voting for Women in the "Year of the Woman
Mapping the Ideological Marketplace
Risk-Bearing and Progressive Ambition
Estimating Party Influence in Congressional Roll-Call Voting
Lawyers and Politics Revisited
A Theory of Political Ambition
The Statistical Analysis of Roll Call Data
The Hunt for Party Discipline in Congress
| Unique citing works | 33 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 33 |