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

近年来，城市居民针对当地问题的政治活动表现出巨大的变化。 一些城市的公民在市政选举和社会运动中的参与度很高，而其他城市的居民则大部分复员。 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层和下层的推拉相互作用中产生的，并由城市内正式和非正式制度化的规则和激励措施构成。 我们将特别关注复员群体参与政治活动的各种方式。本文要探讨的核心问题是：我们如何解释不同城市政治参与水平的差异？ 我们如何解释城市内不同时间、不同种族、经济和地理群体的政治参与差异？ 为什么某些联盟会在一些城市出现，而在另一些城市则不会？ 如何动员团体反对或支持主导联盟？ 动员团体如何复员？除了有关参与水平的问题外，我还将研究有关其他类型政治行为的问题：如何解释不同城市和同一城市内不同时间政治行为类型的差异？ 何时在党派组织而不是社区或族裔群体中表达动员？ 什么才算是政治参与？ 动员的选区何时进入选举舞台？ 居民何时会诉诸更具争议性的参与方式，例如骚乱？该项目将使用两种互补的方法来探索城市政治参与的动态。 研究的第一阶段将对 1960 年至 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断面分析。 第二阶段使用档案材料、报纸报道和出口民意调查采访数据对四个案例研究城市进行比较历史分析：纽约、芝加哥、亚特兰大、休斯顿。该项目将扩展这些城市的现有选举数据，研究其他类型的政治参与，包括社区组织、社会运动和骚乱等争论事件，并更全面地阐述塑造城市公民政治参与的过程和机制，从而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.