"This exceptional book makes an important contribution for scholars and students, as well as for policymakers and a broader audience interested in understanding who gets to run for office and why. It develops the most compelling general theory of working-class underrepresentation to date, linking this phenomenon to fundamental features of democratic design."-- Lucia Motolinia, author of Unity Through Particularism: How Electoral Reforms Influence Parties and Legislative Behavior "The data the authors present about the severe underrepresentation of the working class in political office is completely convincing, and indeed, sadly, not all that surprising. What makes the book so strong is that this is the starting point of the manuscript, as opposed to its key result, and the rest of the book is devoted to developing and testing a theory of what exactly explains this underrepresentation so that we can begin to think about how to address it."-- Joshua Tucker, coauthor of Communism's Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes "An impressive, clear-eyed account of a major flaw in the world's electoral democracies--their massive underrepresentation of working people."-- Larry M. Bartels, Vanderbilt University "A critically important book at a critically important historical moment. The voices of the working class are muted in almost every advanced democracy.

This book explains why. The near absence of the working class from legislative office at the national level, along with its minuscule presence at lower levels, derives from structural conditions that, unaddressed, will always persist. The analysis suggests practical, feasible steps to bring working class presence, voices and perspectives directly into democratic politics. Everyone who cares about democracy today should read this book."-- Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University.