Geographic Context and Political Empowerment: Urbanicity as a Moderator

• In Event: Human Rights & Urban and Local Politics Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: Urban and Local Politics: New Directions in Urban Politics Research Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

The divide between rural and urban America has been studied for more than a century, resulting in extensive theory on how the context of rural (urban) areas uniquely socialize people. A separate literature has theorized on how race/ethnicity structures political behavior, finding that co-ethnic representation, co-ethnic population share, and experiences of discrimination are key predictors of minority political participation. This paper seeks to reconcile these two literatures by exploring how urbanicity interacts with variables traditionally understood to affect political empowerment among non-white groups. Using data from the Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, a series of multivariate regression models measure the degree to which urbanicity moderates the relationship between empowering circumstances and empowered behavior. Existing theory on the mechanisms of empowerment would suggest that rural minorities, by virtue of being intimately aware of their surrounding community, are more empowered by living in a co-ethnic space than urban minorities are. Similarly, rural minorities, by virtue of being geographically isolated, are less empowered by discrimination than urban minorities are.

Author

• Michael Herndon, University of California, Los Angeles