How closely doesKorea’s 22nd Assemblyresemble the public?

The Assembly is much older, wealthier, and more highly educated than the public. This experiment does not argue that population ratios should be reproduced in the Assembly, or that any particular person should become a lawmaker.

Greater representation is desirable in a representative institution. But its goal should not be demographic replication; it should be preventing political exclusion and ensuring that people’s substantive interests are represented.

It asks, however, how closely the current 300 resemble the people they represent. What kind of Assembly—and what kind of lawmakers—should Korea have?