Congress: Personal Characteristics

Characteristics	Senators & Representatives	Congressional Staff	Higher Career Civil Service	Federal Political Executives
Geographical Representation	Over-representative of small towns	Broadly representatives geographically	Over-representative of East & urban areas	Broadly representative; over-representative of NY & D.C.
Education	Highly Educated	Highly Educated	Highly Educated	Highly Educated
Occupation	Law & Business; some educators; professional politicians	Specialty tied to job; professional public servants; some generalists	Specialty tied to job; professional public servants; many business background	Heavily in business and law; some educators
Age	Median: about 50	Median: about 40	Median: late 40s	Median: late 40s
Gender & Race	Mostly white males	Mostly white males	Mostly white males	Mostly white males
Previous experience	High experience in both Government and Politics	considerable Hill and political experience; limited Executive branch experience	High government experience through Civil Service	Moderately high experience in federal service
Beliefs	subgovernments & interest group access; ideology shifts with election results	subgovernments & interest group access; ideology reflects that of congressional sponsor	subgovernments & interest group access; ideology reflects that of agency	subgovernments & interest group access, with limits; ideology reflects that of agency or president

^{Randall Ripley and Grace Franklin,
"Congress, the Bureaucracy and Public Policy," Brooks Cole, 1991}