The Obligation Mosaic: Race and Social Norms in US Political Participation by Allison P. Anoll

Author:Allison P. Anoll [Anoll, Allison P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Political Science, General, Civics & Citizenship, Political Process, Campaigns & Elections, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, Asian American Studies
ISBN: 9780226812571
Google: ft1SEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 57229773
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2022-01-21T11:44:45+00:00

Chapter Six

Norms and National Turnout

We have now identified, defined, and measured the honoring ancestors and helping hands norms, two widely shared social norms that vary in their connection to political participation across racial groups in the United States. As we’ve seen, these two norms are consequential in the formation of political attitudes, influencing group beliefs about whether political participation is important, useful, respected, required. But do these norms also affect political behavior? Are they consequential in the decisions individuals make when deciding whether to engage?

In this chapter, I turn to testing the influence of participatory social norms on turnout in high-salience national elections—or those years when either a president or members of the US Congress are elected. I again use data from the PSNS. I find that the honoring ancestors norm is of central importance for explaining who shows up at the polls and who stays home during presidential and midterm elections. Across groups and in a variety of years, my novel political ancestors index predicts validated voter turnout at rates outpacing alternatives, including degree of political recruitment, political interest, racial linked fate, income, and education. Further, accounting for norm prevalence helps explain variation in minority turnout behavior and demonstrates that the honoring ancestors norm helps Black Americans participate at rates similar to Whites.

Two experiments further show how peers and elites together mobilize others to the polls. I find that Black Americans reward neighbors for voting to a greater degree than other racial groups and are more likely to respond to ancestor-themed turnout messages. This is especially true for Black Americans who live in predominantly Black neighborhoods or who are lower-propensity voters themselves.

Collectively, my results help to explain a participatory puzzle frequently cited in the American politics literature: the fact that Black Americans often outperform other racial minorities in national election year turnout and even, occasionally, show up at rates higher than Whites. My findings demonstrate that the honoring ancestors norm serves as a particularly potent mobilizing resource in Black communities. When the honoring ancestors norm is coupled with politics, it predicts turnout in national elections for all Americans, regardless of race, but Black Americans are significantly more likely than other groups to embrace this expression of the norm and enforce it on community members. As a result, even Black Americans who do not personally believe that the honoring ancestors norm requires political participation face social incentives to engage and can be mobilized by elites who invoke the norm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.