Doctoral Dissertation Research: Urban Political Participation: Sources of Mobilization and Demobilization

近年来，城市居民针对地方问题的政治活动呈现出巨大的变化。 一些城市的公民高度参与市政选举和社会运动，而其他城市的居民则大多复员。 在这个项目中，我将探讨政治参与的水平和形式是如何从上面和下面的推动和拉动的相互作用中产生的，这些推动和拉动是由城市内部正式和非正式制度化的规则和激励机制构成的。 特别注意将支付复员群体成为从事在本论文中要探讨的中心问题的各种方式是：我们如何解释不同城市的政治参与水平的变化？ 我们如何解释不同时间、不同种族、经济和地理群体的城市政治参与差异？ 为什么某些联盟出现在一些城市，而不是在其他城市？ 如何动员团体反对或支持占主导地位的联盟？ 被动员的团体如何复员？除了关于参与水平的问题，我还将研究关于其他类型的政治行为的问题：什么解释了不同城市和同一城市内不同时间的政治行为类型的差异？ 什么时候动员是在党派组织中表达的，而不是在社区或种族团体中表达的？ 什么是政治参与？ 动员起来的选民何时进入选举竞技场？ 什么时候居民会诉诸更有争议的参与方式，比如骚乱？本项目将使用两种相辅相成的方法来探讨城市政治参与的动态。 研究的第一阶段将包括对1960-2000年40年间美国38个城市的选举参与情况进行时间序列横截面分析。 第二阶段利用档案材料、报纸报道和出口民调访谈数据对四个案例研究城市进行历史比较分析：纽约、芝加哥、亚特兰大和休斯顿。该项目将通过扩大这些城市的现有选举数据，通过审查其他类型的政治参与，包括社区组织、社会运动和骚乱等争议事件，并通过更充分地阐述塑造城市公民政治参与的过程和机制，为社会学和城市选举政治研究做出贡献。

Political activity by city residents geared towards local issues has shown tremendous variation in recent times. Citizens in some cities have had high levels of participation in both municipal elections and in social movements, while residents of other cities are largely demobilized. In this project, I will explore how levels and forms of political participation result from the interaction of pushes and pulls from above and below, structured by the rules and incentives that have been formally and informally institutionalized within a city. Particular attention will be paid to the various ways that demobilized groups become engaged in Central questions to be explored in this dissertation are: How can we explain variation in levels of political participation across cities? How can we explain political participation variation within cities across time and across different racial, economic, and geographic groups? Why do certain coalitions arise in some cities and not in others? How are groups mobilized either in opposition to or in support of the dominant coalition? How do mobilized groups become demobilized? Besides questions about the level of participation, I will also examine questions about other types of political behavior: What explains the variation in types of political behavior across cities and across time within the same city? When is mobilization expressed in partisan organizations as opposed to community or ethnic groups? What counts as political participation? When do mobilized constituencies enter the electoral arena? When do residents resort to more contentious means of participation, such as rioting? This project will use two complementary methods to explore the dynamics of political participation in cities. The first phase of the research will consist of a time-series cross-sectional analysis of electoral participation in 38 US cities over 40 years from 1960-2000. The second phase comparative historical analysis using archival materials, newspaper accounts, and exit poll interview data on four case study cities: New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston. This project will make a contribution to sociology and the study of urban electoral politics by expanding upon available electoral data for these cities, by examining other types of political participation, including community organizations, social movements, and incidents of contention, such as riots, and by elaborating more fully on the processes and mechanisms shaping citizen political participation in cities.