The Decline of the Lawyer Politician

Abstract

While the ubiquity of lawyers in U.S. electoral politics is well known, there has been almost no research on how their prevalence has changed over time, why these changes might have occurred, or the consequences of any such shift. This article helps address these gaps. Using a unique data set that extends over two hundred years of the occupational background of members of the U.S. Congress, it confirms widespread perceptions that lawyers have long dominated Congress. However, it also finds that this dominance is in slow, but steady, retreat. In the mid-19th century almost 80% of members were lawyers. By the 1960s this had dropped to under 60%, and by 2015 it was less than 40%. The article puts forward a set of arguments about why lawyers have traditionally had such success in U.S. electoral politics, including their affinity for lawmaking, the politicization of the U.S. justice system, and advantages in terms of career flexibility and access to resources. It claims lawyers’ electoral decline is largely the result of changes within the legal profession as well as new electoral competition, particularly from an emerging professionalized political class comprised of political aides and members of civil society that have made politics a career. The article argues lawyers’ prevalence in Congress has had at least three effects. First, it has impacted Congressional outcomes. While lawyer legislators generally have similar voting records as other members, evidence is presented here for the first time that members of the House of Representatives who are lawyers have been more likely to support the funding of civil legal aid, potentially pointing to a larger set of behavioral differences between lawyer and non-lawyer legislators, especially in their approach to policies related to the legal system. Second, law, as a “gateway” occupation into politics, has affected Congressional diversity. The article presents new evidence that lawyer members of Congress have historically been less likely to be women, indicating that the hurdles women have faced in law have possibly reduced their representation in Congress. Third, lawyers’ prevalence in Congress has impacted the legal profession and the larger legal system. Lawyers’ decline in Congress, and politics more generally, has likely reduced the number of politically oriented students who enter law and contributed to perceptions that the profession has become less civic-minded. The even more precipitous decline in Congress of former judges may be helping depoliticize the judiciary even more quickly than the bar. The article concludes by claiming that law schools and the profession need to more actively address diversity challenges as well as provide better training in leadership if they want lawyers to remain central to and be as positive a force as possible in electoral politics in the United States.