Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: "Political Inclusion and Ethnic Relations: Did Political Representation Affect Attitudes Towards Untouchables?"

一个传统上处于不利地位的群体在多大程度上从获得政治代表中受益？通过关注印度达利特人（以前的“贱民”）的案例，本项目概述了“描述性代表制”的相对好处和坏处，并特别关注将达利特人纳入政治机构对达利特人态度的影响。与流行的“现实冲突”和群体竞争理论相反，该项目认为，从长远来看，对达利特人的态度应该随着他们的政治代表性而改善。为了提供支持这一说法的经验证据，该研究在印度南部村庄的一项调查中使用了调查实验和其他态度变量来衡量对达利特人的态度。从经验上看，该项目有两个目标：衡量达利特代表对达利特态度的影响程度，调查任何变化背后的因果机制。由于专门为达利特人留出政治办公室的村庄是根据1993年以来实施的“预留”制度随机选择的，因此调查答案可以更清楚地估计达利特政治包容对态度的影响。该项目做出了一些贡献。令人惊讶的是，学者们很少关注政治领导人种族变化对态度的影响。这个问题在政治科学的流行观点中显得至关重要，根据这种观点，种族群体为控制经济和政治资源而斗争。根据这一假设，种族间关系的恶化可能会抵消一个群体从政治代表中获得的物质利益。为了解决这个问题，该提案使用了对美国种族态度感兴趣的政治心理学家所采用的实验设计。因此，该项目努力规避受访者之间的社会期望效应，并对过去三十年来美国文献中关于群体态度的一些问题提出了一个罕见的比较测试。该项目通过为至少两个主要的公共政策相关辩论提供信息而产生了更广泛的影响。第一个问题涉及增加弱势群体公民参与决策过程的相对好处。虽然这种双方同意的处方被广泛接受，但目前很少有证据表明这将给目标社区带来总体利益。这个项目也为关于“积极歧视”的价值和好处的辩论提供了信息。在印度、法国和美国，关于“政治保留”等积极歧视对群体间关系的负面影响的争论正在迅速发展。这也将产生有关这一问题的调查结果。虽然该项目侧重于描述性表征对这些态度的影响，但其他对种族/民族态度感兴趣的学者可能随后使用这些原始数据来测试与群体间态度的环境决定因素有关的各种假设。

To what extent does a traditionally disadvantaged group benefit from gaining political representation? By focusing on the case of Dalits (the former "untouchables") in India, this project provides an overview of the relative benefits and downsides of "descriptive representation" and a specific focus on the impact of the inclusion of Dalits in political institutions on attitudes toward Dalits. In contrast with prevalent theories of "realistic conflict" and group competition, the project argues that attitudes towards Dalits should improve in the long run with their political representation. To provide empirical evidence supporting this claim, the study uses survey-experiments and other attitudinal variables measuring attitudes towards Dalits in a survey of Southern Indian villages. Empirically, the project has two objectives: measure the extent to which Dalit representation has affected attitudes towards Dalits and investigate the causal mechanisms that lie behind any changes. Since villages in which political offices are specifically set aside for Dalits are randomly chosen according to the "reservation" system in place since 1993, survey answers allow clearer causal estimates of the impact of Dalit political inclusion on attitudes. The project makes several contributions. Scholars have devoted surprisingly little attention to the attitudinal repercussions of a change in the ethnicity of political leaders. This question appears crucial in regards to the prevalent view in political science, according to which ethnic groups fight for the control of economic and political resources. Following this hypothesis, a deterioration of interethnic relations would likely offset the material gains a group derives from political representation. To address this question, the proposal uses experimental designs employed by political psychologists interested in racial attitudes in the United States. The project thus strives to circumvent social desirability effects among respondents and proposes a rare comparative test of some of the questions the American literature on group attitudes has been debating for the last three decades. This project has broader impacts from informing at least two major, public policy-related debates. The first concerns the relative benefits of increasing the participation of citizens from disadvantaged groups in policy-making processes. While this consensual prescription is widely accepted, very little evidence currently exists concerning the overall benefits this would bring to the targeted community. This project also informs the debate over the value and the benefits of "positive discriminations." Arguments over the negative impact on intergroup relations of positive discriminations, such as "political reservations," have been developing fast in India, in France and in the United States. This will also yield relevant findings on this question. While the project focuses on the impact of descriptive representation on these attitudes, other scholars interested in racial/ethnic attitudes may subsequently use this original data to test a variety of hypotheses related to the environmental determinants of intergroup attitudes.