The South, Medium‐Sized Cities, and a New Look at the Determinants of African‐American Representation

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of African-American representation on city councils in medium-sized urban areas to provide greater insight into the strategies African-Americans use to achieve political incorporalion and the extent to which traditionally excluded groups have access to electedpositions in the United States. I argue that previous studies generate varied conclusions about the determinants of African-American representation on city councils because scholars fail to recognize that minority political strategies may vary based on [he relative and absolute size of the minority population. I examine the determinants of Aji-ican-American representation in medium-sized cities to consider whether African-Americans employ an electoral mobilization strategy when they make up a large percentage of the electorate but lack the large absolute numbers necessary to sustain demand-protest activities. A regression analysis indicates that the percentage of African-Americans in the electorate is the only factor that significantly affects African-American descriptive representation. This finding supports the hypothesis that African-Americans use an electoral strateg27 when [hey lack large absolute numbers. This research also confirms Guinier S claims that African-Americans fail to achieve proportional representation in the current electoral system and suggests that the plurality system comes with high start-up costs for a traditionally excluded group.

Stressful Life Events and African American Political Participation

“…Noelle-Neumann (1984) speaks of the "spiral of silence," in which people who feel themselves to be in a minority are less likely to give "voice" to their views, as they feel that they are in such a minority that their views will not be likely to prevail. Burns (2003) notes that in Southern cities, the percentage of African Americans in a city is highly linked to odds of success of African American candidates. Thus, Hypothesis 4 is as follows:…”