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出现了巨大的变化。一些城市的公民在市政选举和社会运动中的参与率很高，而其他城市的居民基本上都复员了。在这个项目中，我将探索政治参与的水平和形式是如何通过上下层的推动和拉动相互作用而产生的，这些结构是由城市中正式和非正式制度化的规则和激励机制构成的。本文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程度的差异？我们如何解释不同时间、不同种族、不同经济和地理群体的政治参与在城市中的差异？为什么某些城市会出现某些联盟，而另一些城市则不会？如何动员反对或支持占主导地位的联盟的团体？动员起来的群体是如何复员的？除了关于参与程度的问题，我还将研究其他类型的政治行为：如何解释同一城市内不同城市和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，而不是在社区或族裔群体中表达的？什么是政治参与？动员起来的选民什么时候进入选举舞台？居民什么时候会求助于更具争议性的参与方式，比如骚乱？这个项目将使用两种互补的方法来探索城市政治参与的动态。这项研究的第一阶段将包括对美国38个城市从1960年到2000年40年间选举参与度的时间序列横断面分析。第二阶段使用档案资料、报纸报道和出口民调访问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、休斯顿。该项目将对社会学和城市选举政治研究作出贡献，扩大这些城市现有的选举数据，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执事件，并更充分地阐述塑造城市公民政治参与的过程和机制。

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.