Representativeness

Abstract

Iowa caucus attenders and state convention delegates in 1980 were similar in their presidential preferences and political opinions and displayed patterns similar to those found in other studies of leaders and followers. However, Democratic leaders were slightly more representative of their followers on measures of candidate preference, which we attribute to their use of a proportional representation rule for delegate selection. They were also closer in social representation, which apparently follows from their use of affirmative action rules and other guidelines. Republican activists tend to be higher in social status than Democratic activists, but not on every measure. The Republican leaders were somewhat closer to their followers in representativeness of opinions than were Democratic leaders and followers. We observed that Democratic delegates were the most liberal group, followed by Democratic caucus attenders, then Republican caucus attenders, and (least liberal) Republican delegates.