Replication Data for: Race, Responsiveness, and Representation in U.S. Lawmaking

Under what circumstances do White Americans receive better representation than racial and ethnic minorities? To answer this fundamental question, we examine how well national policy outcomes match the preferences of 520,000 Black, Latino, Asian American, and White citizens from 2006 to 2022. Average racial gaps in responsiveness are small regardless of issue area. However, White voters are significantly advantaged when Republicans control government. Respondents’ class, age, and ideology do not explain these patterns. Respondents’ partisanship explains some, but not all, of them. To further investigate these disparities, we analyze roll-call votes in Congress, focusing on the Senate—the pivotal lawmaking institution. Similar patterns emerge: Republican Senators better represent White (versus Black or Latino) constituents. Moreover, Black-White disparities are larger in states where Black Americans comprise more of the population, suggesting that party-based racial disparities might reflect White racial attitudes. Indeed, we find that state-level White resentment predicts Black-White representational disparities. For replication notes and instructions, see: README.txt For codebook for primary analysis datasets, see: cooebook.txt Dataverse includes code and raw datafiles use to create final datasets.