Emanating Political Participation: Untangling the Spatial Structure Behind Participation

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
WENDY K TAM CHO ◽  
THOMAS J RUDOLPH
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Level ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Spatial Econometric ◽  
Individual Level

This is an analysis of the spatial structure of political participation in the United States using spatial econometric techniques and newly available geo-coded data. The results provide strong evidence that political participation is geographically clustered, and that this clustering cannot be explained entirely by social network involvement, individual-level characteristics, such as race, income, education, cognitive forms of political engagement, or by aggregate-level factors such as racial diversity, income inequality, mobilization or mean education level. The analysis suggests that the spatial structure of participation is consistent with a diffusion process that occurs independently from citizens' involvement in social networks.

A Look Ahead at the 2020 US Elections: The Role of Candidate Diversity in Political Participation

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 436-441
Author(s):  
Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes ◽  
Jose R. Bucheli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Diverse Population ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Representative Data ◽  
Look Ahead ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Hispanic Voters

An increasingly diverse population in the United States has given rise to a growing body of literature that analyzes the causes and consequences of descriptive representation. Using individual-level representative data on registration and voting for the entire United States over the 2008-2018 decade, we find that diversity in the candidate pool promotes the registration and voting of eligible-to-vote individuals, particularly those belonging to the youngest generations of voters, those located in swing states, and growing minorities, as in the case of Hispanic voters. Given the changing electorate, increasing candidate diversity might prove crucial in promoting political and electoral engagement.

Why Do Immigrants Participate in Politics Less Than Native-Born Citizens? A Formative Years Explanation

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoxi Li ◽  
Bradley M. Jones
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Older Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Main Factor ◽  
Formative Years

AbstractOne of the long-standing puzzles in the political behavior literature is about immigrants' low level of political participation: after achieving comparable and sometimes even higher levels of socioeconomic status relative to the native-born citizens, why do immigrants still participate less in politics? We argue that the different formative years experiences associated with immigrants who moved to the United States at an older age is the key that explains the participation gap between immigrants and the native-born population. Using the 1994–2016 Current Population Survey and their Voting and Civic Engagement Supplements as data sources, we develop a hierarchical model that simultaneously accounts for region-, country-, and individual-level variables. The results are striking. We show that immigrants who move to the United States at a young age participate in politics at a rate that is indistinguishable from the native-born population; those who migrated at an older age participate less. The fact that over 60% of the immigrant population moved to the United States as adults is a main factor that contributes to the political participation gap between immigrants and the native-born population.

From observation on social media to offline political participation: The social media affordances approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482199834
Author(s):  
Dam Hee Kim ◽  
Nicole B. Ellison
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Citizenship Norms

Building on prior studies suggesting that social media can facilitate offline political participation, this study seeks to clarify the mechanism behind this link. Social media may encourage social learning of political engagement due to their unique affordances such as visibility (i.e. once-invisible political activities by others are now visible on social media feeds). By analyzing a two-wave survey conducted before the 2016 presidential election in the United States, this study tests a theoretical model in which observation of others’ political activities on social media inspires users themselves to model similar political behaviors, which foster offline political participation. Autoregressive models show that the link between political observation and activities on social media is stronger among users surrounded with similar others and politically homogeneous networks. The results highlight the need to cultivate engaged citizenship norms for individuals’ political activities on social media to be carried over to participation beyond the realm of social media.

Proportion of Individuals With Past-Year Suicidal Ideation Who Attempted Suicide Over the Past 10 Years in the United States, and the Influence of Age and Sex

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Shannon Lange ◽  
Courtney Bagge ◽  
Charlotte Probst ◽  
Jürgen Rehm
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Random Effects ◽  
Attempted Suicide ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Age Category

Abstract. Background: In recent years, the rate of death by suicide has been increasing disproportionately among females and young adults in the United States. Presumably this trend has been mirrored by the proportion of individuals with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. Aim: We aimed to investigate whether the proportion of individuals in the United States with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide differed by age and/or sex, and whether this proportion has increased over time. Method: Individual-level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008–2017, were used to estimate the year-, age category-, and sex-specific proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. We then determined whether this proportion differed by age category, sex, and across years using random-effects meta-regression. Overall, age category- and sex-specific proportions across survey years were estimated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Although the proportion was found to be significantly higher among females and those aged 18–25 years, it had not significantly increased over the past 10 years. Limitations: Data were self-reported and restricted to past-year suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Conclusion: The increase in the death by suicide rate in the United States over the past 10 years was not mirrored by the proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide during this period.

Is Distance to Drop Box an Appropriate Proxy for Drop Box Treatment? A Case Study of Washington State

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110221
Author(s):  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
The United States ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Primary 52 ◽  
The One ◽  
Vote By Mail

In the United States, drop box mail-in voting has increased, particularly in the all vote by mail (VBM) states of Washington, Colorado, Utah, and Oregon. To assess if drop boxes improve voter turnout, research proxies box treatment by voters’ residence distance to nearest drop box. However, no research has tested the assumption that voters use drop boxes nearest their residence more so than they do other drop boxes. Using individual-level voter data from a 2020 Washington State election, we show that voters are more likely to use the nearest drop box to their residence relative to other drop boxes. In Washington’s 2020 August primary, 52% of drop box voters in our data used their nearest drop box. Moreover, those who either (1) vote by mail, or (2) used a different drop box from the one closest to their residence live further away from their closest drop box. Implications are discussed.

Waking Up in the Poll Booth

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-910
Author(s):  
Robert E. Goodin ◽  
James Mahmud Rice
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Waking Up

Judging from Gallup Polls in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, opinion often changes during an election campaign. Come election day itself, however, opinion often reverts back nearer to where it was before the campaign began. That that happens even in Australia, where voting is compulsory and turnout is near-universal, suggests that differential turnout among those who have and have not been influenced by the campaign is not the whole story. Inspection of individual-level panel data from 1987 and 2005 British General Elections confirms that between 3 and 5 percent of voters switch voting intentions during the campaign, only to switch back toward their original intentions on election day. One explanation, we suggest, is that people become more responsible when stepping into the poll booth: when voting they reflect back on the government's whole time in office, rather than just responding (as when talking to pollsters) to the noise of the past few days' campaigning. Inspection of Gallup Polls for UK snap elections suggests that this effect is even stronger in elections that were in that sense unanticipated.

scholarly journals The Instability of Highly Racially Diverse Residential Neighborhoods in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wright ◽  
Mark Ellis ◽  
Steven R. Holloway ◽  
Gemma Catney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racially Diverse ◽  
Absolute Level ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Diversity

This research concerns the location and stability of highly racially diverse census tracts in the United States. Like some other scholars, the authors define such tracts conservatively, requiring the significant presence of at least three racialized groups. Of the approximately 65,000 tracts in the country, there were 197 highly diverse tracts in 1990 and 998 in 2010. Most were located in large metropolitan areas. Stably integrated highly diverse tracts were the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of highly diverse tracts transitioned to that state from being predominantly White. Those that transitioned from being highly racially diverse were most likely to transition to being majority Latino. Although the absolute level of metropolitan racial diversity has no effect on the stability of high-diversity tracts, change in both metropolitan-scale racial diversity and population raise the probability of a tract’s transitioning to high diversity. Metropolitan-scale racial diversity did not affect the stability of highly diverse tracts, but it did alter the patterns of succession from them. The authors also found that highly diverse tracts were unstable and less likely to form in metropolitan areas with high percentages of Blacks. Increased metropolitan-level diversity mutes this Black population share effect by reducing the probability of high-diversity tract succession to a Black majority.

Why Politicians Are More Tolerant: Selective Recruitment and Socialization Among Political Elites in Britain, Israel, New Zealand and the United States

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Sullivan ◽  
Pat Walsh ◽  
Michal Shamir ◽  
David G. Barnum ◽  
James L. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Tolerance ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Members Of Parliament

In this article, we present data showing that national legislators are more tolerant than the public in Britain, Israel, New Zealand and the United States. Two explanations for this phenomenon are presented and assessed. The first is the selective recruitment of Members of Parliament, Knesset and Congress from among those in the electorate whose demographic, ideological and personality characteristics predispose them to be tolerant. Although this process does operate in all four countries, it is insufficient to explain all of the differences in tolerance between elites and the public in at least three countries. The second explanation relies on a process of explicitly political socialization, leading to differences in tolerance between elites and their public that transcend individual-level, personal characteristics. Relying on our analysis of political tolerance among legislators in the four countries, we suggest how this process of political socialization may be operating.

Islamic Headcovering and Political Engagement: The Power of Social Networks

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrey Westfall ◽  
Özge Çelik Russell ◽  
Bozena Welborne ◽  
Sarah Tobin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Muslim Americans ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Muslim American Women

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between headcovering and women's political participation through an original online survey of 1,917 Muslim-American women. As a visible marker of religious group identity, wearing the headscarf can orient the integration of Muslim women into the American political system via its impact on the openness of their associational life. Our survey respondents who cover are more likely to form insular, strong ties with predominantly Muslim friend networks, which decreased their likelihood of voting and affiliating with a political party. Interestingly, frequency of mosque attendance across both covered and uncovered respondents is associated with a higher probability of political participation, an effect noted in other religious institutions in the United States. Yet, mosque attendance can simultaneously decrease the political engagement of congregants if they are steered into exclusively religious friend groups. This discovery reveals a tension within American Muslim religious life and elaborates on the role of religious institutions vs. social networks in politically mobilizing Muslim-Americans.

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