Representing the advantaged : how politicians reinforce inequality /

In The Unheavenly Chorus (2012) Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, and Henry Brady analyze the inequalities that characterize individual political participation, recognizing that participation serves to communicate citizen needs and preferences and to encourage responsiveness from policy makers. In Representing the Advantaged Butler (Yale Univ.) shifts the focus from citizens to officials to explore the powerful question of how responsive government officials are to those citizens who are active. Butler explores whether, once people decide to engage politically, they are perceived and treated equally by public officials. Butler uses experiments to evaluate officials' responsiveness to citizen inquiries, providing an innovative model to measure responsiveness. His well-researched conclusion is that disparities continue; officials' perceptions of, and responses to, citizen communications are not equal across demographic groups. One of the strengths of the book is that Butler does not stop after demonstrating the existence of bias, but conducts further experiments to analyze the causal factors underlying the bias. In this way, the author provides a nuanced picture of policy maker responsiveness. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Dana K. Whippo, Dickinson State University