Democracy's Deficit: The Role of Institutional Contact in Shaping non-White Political Behavior

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of institutional contact on political participation among non-White communities. While both formal and informal institutions help shape community citizen participation, their effects vary on the historical inclusion (or exclusion) of certain racial groups. Formal institutions, like political parties, have historically excluded or neglected non-White and immigrant voters. We argue that for the excluded or neglected, non-traditional political institutions, like community based organizations, serve as supplements to facilitate political incorporation and engagement. These informal institutions help develop skills and resources among their constituents, and offer routine opportunities to participate. We use the 2008 Collaborative Multi-racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) to test the differential effects of self-reported voter mobilization through nonpartisan and partisan institutional contact to explain variations among racial groups by the intensity of contact, occurrence of co-ethnic outreach, and type of institutional mobilization. We find that while contact by a partisan/political institution, like a political party or campaign, has an overall positive effect on political participation for all voters, contact by a nonpartisan/civic or community group is substantively more important for Latino and Asian American voter mobilization. Our analysis therefore offers cohesive evidence of how voters interact with and are affected by mobilization efforts that attends to differences across racial and ethnic boundaries, and variations in institutional contact.

The Ties that Bind: Assessing the Effects of Political and Racial Church Homogeneity on Asian American Political Participation

“…Ramírez, Solano, and Wilcox-Archuleta (2018) find that while Asian Americans may be contacted to participate by other minorities, they are neglected by White recruiters. As an alternative to formal institutions of recruitment, community-based organizations may be more effective at recruiting Asian Americans into politics (García-Castañon et al 2019).…”

People of Color, People of Faith: The Effect of Social Capital and Religion on the Political Participation of Marginalized Communities

“…The significance of the Black church to the political participation of Black communities is mirrored among immigrant groups, who rely on churches as their central socializing institution (Gordon 1964;Haddad et al 2003;Alba et al 2009). As with communities of color, immigrants suffer a dearth of attention from traditional, formal institutions such as political parties (Wong 2006;García-Castañon et al 2019), thereby increasing the ability of churches to influence immigrants' policy preferences, civic engagement, and willingness to participate politically (Gordon 1964;Jones-Correa and Leal 2001;Putnam and Campbell 2010;Djupe and Neiheisel 2012). This is because churches are trustworthy sources of information, which can be important when they do not know where else to turn for help with finding a school for their children, looking for work, or asking questions about immigration documentation (Cadge and Ecklund 2006;Cadge and Ecklund 2007;Putnam and Campbell 2010;Martinez et al 2012).…”

“…Congregational Social capital includes accessing the social networks of places of worship for potential goal-oriented action (Schneider 1999). Social capital is an established component to political participation; it has consistently been found that those who engage with community or volunteer organizations (including churches) have higher rates of civic and political participation (Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980;Verba et al 1995;Tossutti 2003;García-Castañon et al 2019). It then makes sense that Putnam argues churches are the "single greatest repository of social capital" in the U.S. ( 2001), as places of worship often organize volunteer opportunities and offer prime (and ongoing) sources of both material and emotional support to members, allowing for the development of relationships and a community, which form the backbone of social capital (Manzano 2007;Brown and Brown 2003).…”

Amidst pandemic and racial upheaval: Where Asian Americans Fit

“…Beyond this, Asian Americans can take a more active stance in standing against institutionalized anti-Blackness and racial inequality by working to increase turnout of underrepresented non-white and immigrant voters who have been historically excluded or neglected by formal institutions designed to boost citizen participation (Garcia-Castañon et al ., 2019). Specifically, Garcia-Castañon et al .…”

“…Specifically, Garcia-Castañon et al . (2019) find that contact from a non-partisan/civic or community group is substantively more important for mobilizing Latinx and Asian American voters, in contrast to conventional partisan/political institutions (e.g. political parties or campaigns), which have an overall positive effect on political participation for all voters.…”