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POLITICAL INCORPORATION AND CRITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF BLACK PUBLIC OPINION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2004

Katherine Tate
Katherine Tate
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine
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Abstract

The 2000 presidential election was unprecedented not only because of the lengthy dispute over the results, but also because both the Republican and Democratic Party presidential candidates directed their campaign appeals to minority voters. Because Black public opinion has moderated over time, Blacks are closer ideologically to the Democratic and Republican parties. Whereas in the 1970s and early 1980s Blacks believed the Democratic Party to be to the right of their position on issues such as government aid to Blacks and minority groups, today they see little difference, placing the Democratic Party slightly to the left of themselves on average. Black attitudes have moderated, I argue, because of the coercive dynamic of their incorporation into mainstream, electoral politics. And, indeed, the greatest force behind the newfound unity between Blacks and the Democratic Party is, ironically, the exogenous expansion of Black members' opportunities for political power and advancement in the United States House of Representatives. However, in contrast to other structural accounts, my analysis still leaves open the possibility that Black opinion could re-radicalize in the future.Note: Earlier versions of this paper were presented at a May 2003 conference on “New Perspectives on the Study of Race and Political Representation” at the University of Rochester organized by Fredrick C. Harris and Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, and at the 2002 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association meeting in Boston. The author thanks the participants at these events and Emory Denise Christian for their comments, and UCI's Center for the Study of Democracy for its financial support.

Keywords

Black Public OpinionPolitical IncorporationRaceUnited States Congress
Type
STATE OF THE ART
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , September 2004 , pp. 345 - 359
Copyright
© 2004 W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research

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