Racial attitudes are individual, but their translation into economic outcomes is political. Politics – especially national politics – uses individual attitudes to construct broad economic and social policies. Whites may not like blacks (and vice versa) for various reasons; yet government sets the legal rules and the example by which the citizens of a nation – mainly those who do not think they have much in common – relate to one another. It also helps define the economic and social conditions in which diverse groups live. This political essence of race relations and racial economic inequality makes national government ideology crucial to the direction taken on race by institutions at all levels of society.

“Ideology” means the body of ideas reflecting the needs and aspirations of a society. Developing ideology is precisely what government must do and does: it organizes a vision, or “project,” that reflects how a society wants to think about itself and how it can translate that self-image into concrete change. It is no accident that the main task of a presidential campaign is to develop a coherent, believable project with which voters can identify. Presidents and their parties have to stand for something clear and attractive. This national project sets the political tone for and usually guides the practice of presidential administrations.