Representation in Congress

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proportion of women, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and openly gay or lesbian members of Congress. Reflect on what these patterns say about the nature of representation. Why do some groups tend to be underrepresented in Congress? Why do you see a trend in which more women and minorities are being represented? Do you think the underrepresentation of women and minorities affect Congress’s business? How might we as a people address this situation and strive towards equal representation?

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Representation in Congress

Elective officeholders in the United States have always been majority male. This underrepresentation is surprising given that more women than men vote. Gender, as a feature of both society and politics, has always worked alongside race to determine which groups possess the formal and informal resources and opportunities critical for winning elective office. While women are a growing share of Democratic officeholders, they are a declining share of Republican officeholders. Thus, in an era of heightened partisan polarization, women`s situation as candidates increasingly depends on party. The presence of women in the Congress is a big thing. Women in Congress should reflect the diversity of American women.

There are some systemic risks which are inherent in the model: First, due to the “individual” nature of crowdfunding, there is a possibility that investors may not practice good diversification principles. Second, there may be no secondary market in which investors can sell their investments and exit and hence, there is a risk of illiquidity. Third, there exists the possibility of money laundering. Fourth, these platforms could expose other financial sectors to the risk of default, as occurred during the subprime mortgage crisis. If the rapid growth rate in P2P Lending continues, these risks could become systemic. Fifth, there are cross-border implications, if the funds are solicited through the medium of the internet, as there exists disparities in the application of contract law or securities law in different jurisdictions. Sixth, there is high chance of information asymmetry associated with these platforms, where one party invests/trades based on some information which is unknown to other set of investors. Since there is lack of hard information, there is too much reliance on soft information based on the social networking platforms in this model, which increases the risks.

• The risk of substituting from investment risk to retail risk: currently, the risk in financing start-ups and SMEs are borne by the Venture Capital Funds (VCFs) and Private Equity (PE) Investors. In crowdfunding, these entities solicit investments in smaller sums from large number of investors. Hence, the risk taking by VCF/PE (informed investors) is substituted with retail investors, whose risk tolerance level may be very low, that is they tend to be risk averse. Retail investors may not be able to comprehend the risk in these investments and will be unable to bear the loss of investments. This may turn out to be more dangerous, considering the fact that investments in SMEs and start-ups involve high risk and low liquidity and are generally treated as aggressive and long ter

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