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RETHINKING MODELS OF MINORITY POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Inter- and Intra-group Variation in Political “Styles”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2019

Sunmin Kim
Sunmin Kim*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Dartmouth College
*
*Corresponding author: Sunmin Kim, Deaprtment of Sociology, Dartmouth College, 306D Blunt Hall, 20 N Park St. Hanover, NH. 03755. Email:Sunmin.Kim@dartmouth.edu
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Abstract

Political science research has repeatedly identified a strong correlation between high socio-economic status and political participation, but this finding has not been as robust for racial and ethnic minorities. As a response, the literature on minority political participation has produced a series of different models for different groups by adding group-specific variables to the standard SES model. In assigning a single model per group, however, the literature tends to overlook intra-group differences as well as inter-group commonalities, thereby effectively reifying the concept of race and ethnicity. Using survey data from Los Angeles, this article develops a different approach aimed at detecting intra-group differences as well as inter-group commonalities through a recognition of political “styles.” First, using latent class analysis (LCA), I identify a set of recurring configurations of individual dispositions (education, political knowledge…) and political acts (voting, protest…) that define different political styles. Then I examine the distribution of these political styles across racial and ethnic groups. The results reveal three novel findings that were invisible in the previous studies: 1) all groups feature a considerable degree of intra-group difference in political styles; 2) each group retains other political styles that cannot be captured by a single model; and 3) there are commonalities of political styles that cut across racial and ethnic boundaries. Overall, this article presents a model for quantitative analysis of race and ethnicity that simultaneously captures intra-group differences and inter-group commonalities.

Keywords

RaceMinority PoliticsPolitical ParticipationLatent Class AnalysisIIMMLA

Information

Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , Fall 2019 , pp. 489 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2019 

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