Mobilization and Political Participation: Who is Asked to Play in the Game

[摘要] There is strong evidence that political mobilization is a key predictor of political participation. However, the research on who is mobilized and predictors of mobilization has been mostly limited to recruitment to electoral politics and political activity as a general category, with little distinction between types of activity or the issues about which an individual might be contacted. In this research, I examined political recruitment to distinct activities within any issue arena (generic) and for the issues of schools and crime.I added neighborhood context and a more nuanced version of social connections as predictors of recruitment than has been previously studied.There were key differences in recruitment patterns and predictors, varying with the type of activity and issues to which recruitment might occur. Although whites were contacted at higher rates than blacks for all activities in the generic domain, race was only significant as a predictor for recruitment to contact a public official.Blacks were recruited more often than whites on the issue of crime, but race was never a significant predictor for recruitment in this domain. Race results in the schools domain were mixed. Individuals with the greatest resources were contacted more often than their counterparts for almost all activities within the generic and schools domains, but resources rarely mattered on the issue of crime. Higher levels of individual resources increased the chance of recruitment for most activities in the generic arena, in only one activity for schools and not at all on the issue of crime. Social connections greatly increase the chance of mobilization across all activities and issue domains, but the type of group membership and the type of social connections varies across issue domains and across activities within issue domains. Lastly, when neighborhood matters, it often matters in a big way. Individuals in neighborhoods with the highest proportion of black residents were more likely to be recruited for activities in the crime domain; for two activities in the generic arena, and ignored on one activity in the schools arena. In a number of cases, there was a pronounced bias against individuals in resource poor neighborhoods.

[发布机构] University of Michigan

[效力级别] Political Mobilization

[关键词] Political Recruitment;Political Mobilization;Community Organizing;Political Science;Social Work;Social Sciences;Social Work and Political Science