Collaborative Research: Racial and Performance Models of African-American Mayoral Approval

这项调查在解释对黑人市长的认可时，将绩效模型与种族模型进行了比较。绩效模式强调市民对城市状况的评价，以及市长在处理城市问题时的感知有效性。调查人员有大量研究证实，对国家状况的评估会影响总统的受欢迎程度，也有相当多的人得出了同样的结论，适用于各州和州长。这种模式可以推广到美国的下一级执行办公室吗？另一方面，种族模式规定，批准黑人市长主要是基于种族认同或种族主义。大多数关于黑人市长的研究强调这一种族模式，并关注选举中的种族两极分化。本研究的理论含义是认可绩效模式对黑人公职人员的适用性。几个占多数的少数族裔城市的黑人市长已经有20多年了，这使得少数族裔行政人员在这些环境中多少有些制度化。如果仍然主要以种族而不是表现来评价这些市长，这对城市种族关系、地区主义和城市复兴来说是一个悲观的结论，也是使黑人市长的治理复杂化的一个因素。另一方面，如果绩效已经成为评价黑人市长的标准，这表明城市居民在评价少数民族官员时对种族的敏感度正在降低。此外，黑人和白人公民评价黑人市长的标准可能存在差异，即黑人和白人的认可模式可能不同，这些差异可能会给政府带来进一步的困难。这些模型通过在六个城市进行大规模抽样调查进行检验，这些城市分为多代黑人市长城市和第一代黑人市长城市。多代黑人市长城市是指至少有两名非裔美国人担任市长的城市。这类城市包括亚特兰大、新奥尔良和底特律。第一代黑人市长城市是指非洲裔美国人担任该市第一位黑人市长的城市。被归入这一类别的城市包括丹佛、杰克逊、密西西比和旧金山。基于市长服务年限的两类城市的使用提供了黑人市长领导变量的科学差异。这些数据将对其他对这一主题感兴趣的学者具有实质性的价值。

This investigate compares a Performance Model to a Racial Model in explaining approval of black mayors. The Performance Model emphasizes citizen evaluations of conditions in the city and the mayor's perceived effectiveness in dealing with urban problems. The investigators have a wealth of research confirming that evaluations of conditions in the nation influence presidential popularity and a fair amount drawing the same conclusion for states and governors. Is this model generalizable to the next level of executive offices in the U.S.? The Racial Model, on the other hand, stipulates that approval of a black mayor is based primarily on racial identification or racism. Most of the research on black mayors emphasizes this racial model and focuses on racial polarization in their electionsThe theoretical implication of this research is the applicability of the performance model of approval to black public officials. Several large majority minority cities have had black mayors for more than two decades, making a minority executive somewhat institutionalized in these settings. If these mayors are still evaluated in primarily racial terms, as opposed to performance, it is a pessimistic conclusion for urban race relations, regionalism and urban revival, as well as a factor which complicates governance for black mayors. On the other hand, if performance has become the yardstick for evaluating black mayors, it indicates that urban residents are becoming less sensitive to race in evaluating minority officials. Furthermore, there may be differences in the criteria that black and white citizens use to evaluate a black mayor; that is, the model of approval may differ from blacks to whites, and these differences can create further difficulties in governing.These models are tested using large scale sample surveys in six cities which are divided into multigenerational black mayor cities and first generation black mayor cities. Multi-generation black mayor cities are cities which have had at least two African Americans to serve as mayor. The cities included in this category are Atlanta, New Orleans, and Detroit. First generation black mayor cities are cities in which an African American is serving as the first black mayor of the city. The cities included in this category are Denver, Jackson, Mississippi, and San Francisco. The use of two categories of cities based on length of mayoral service provides scientific variation in the black mayoral leadership variable.These data will be of substantial value to other scholars interested in this topic.