Agency Representation In Congress

As the democratic government began to evolve and take form, the idea of representation started to shift towards one where the demands of citizens came to be known. Today, representatives are seen as people whom citizens’ trust in speaking on their behalf. However, the two types of representation may have an effect on which representative constituents elect. The two types of representation, agency and descriptive, help define how constituents ensure that their interests are displayed in Congress. Even with agency representation being the majority type of representation of Congress, constituents are fairly represented by their representatives in the legislature. Descriptive representation occurs when people elect a representative that is similar
to them because constituents assume that similarity in socialization causes the representative to share basic interests. This type of representation would cause Congress to mirror the composition of the United States population. However, descriptive representation in the US Congress is much lower than what the public expects. Many of the elected representatives come from the same demographic. The representatives in Congress are mainly made up of educated and wealthy citizens that have a higher socio economic status than the average citizen. A vast majority of representatives in Congress are also church members and Christians. Even though descriptive representation is not a large part of the US Congress, this type of representation is important because of the symbolic value of descriptive representation that allows constituents to build trust in the representatives they elect. Another positive of descriptive representation is representatives are able to anticipate constituents’ opinions on new issues that may arise. The second type of representation is agency representation.
Unlike descriptive representation, agency representation is solely based on accountability instead of similarity. In this type of representation, constituents hold representatives accountable due to the constituents’ role in reelection. The ability to hold representatives accountable for their actions in congress gives the representatives a strong incentive, which overrides the fact that representatives do not share the same values as constituents. However, this accountability has a backlash in the congress. Due to the large amount of agency representation prevalent in the United States Congress, gridlock is occurring based on the increasing polarity in constituents. Since agents are forced to represent the polarized views of constituents, there is a high amount of disagreement on policy. This exact issue caused former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to resign. In the New York Times article, “John Boehner, Strong Abortion Foe, Is Imperiled by the Like-Minded,” John Boehner is facing pressure from severely right-wing conservatives that is pushing Boehner to oppose Obama’s plan to give federal funding to Planned Parenthood (NYT, 9/18, A1). The increasing push of conservatives towards the right wing caused greater opposition to Boehner and his positions on funding for Planned Parenthood and other plans, such as the debt ceiling (NYT, 9/18, A1). Unfortunately, the increasing divide in partisanship eventually caused Boehner to resign as Speaker of the House. In the New York Times article, “John Boehner, House Speaker, Will Resign From Congress”, Boehner says that his resignation is due to his belief that remaining as speaker of the house is directly “do irreparable harm to the institution” (NYT, 9/26,
A1).