Black and White Voter Turnout and the Importance of Social-psychological Capital

• In Event: 594 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 19. Political Participation

Abstract

This paper examines what factors most influence whites’ and blacks’ voting behavior in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. We test three major theoretical explanations of voter participation: human capital, social capital, and social-psychological capital. Although racial disparity in political participation is fairly well worn territory, social scientists have yet to understand electoral participation when these disparities are nullified or even reversed (as in the 2012 elections). Using data from Wave 1 and Wave 2 (before and after the 2012 elections) of the Outlook on Life Survey, we probe the voter participation of African-American and white respondents during the election and re-election of President Barack Obama. We find that although human capital deficiencies and social capital assets continue to affect the voter turnout of U.S. blacks and whites, strong social-psychological capital is also a significant predictor of voter turnout. Different aspects of social-psychological capital matter to blacks and whites. For blacks feelings of efficacy largely explain why they showed up to the polls in such strong numbers and eclipsed white voter participation. In contrast, feelings of efficacy did not predict white voter participation. Rather, an interest in politics drove them to vote.

Authors

• Daniel Schneider, University of California-Irvine

• Belinda Robnett, University of California-Irvine