Collaborative Research: A Multi-City Study of Contextual Influences on Group Relations and Voting Behavior in Urban Mayoral Elections

这个合作项目关注的是背景对城市环境中群体间关系和政治行为的影响。一项多城市调查(伴随着城市层面的综合数据)将评估政治、社会和经济环境对个人层面态度形成和政治行为的相对重要性。关注的中心领域是基于群体的态度的发展及其对当地投票行为的相对重要性。这是第一个此类数据集，它将促进对群体间敌意的来源、引起感知到的群体间竞争的条件以及群体间冲突的政治后果的科学知识。对种族和民族多样性政治感兴趣的学者通常将城市视为在人口变化背景下研究个人层面的态度和政治选择的最具活力的地方。各城市之间在制度、社会和经济方面的巨大差异使得能够对群体间态度的发展、公众舆论和基于群体的投票行为的煽动者等问题进行背景研究。到目前为止，关于这一主题的集体知识来自少数案例研究或国家概率样本，它们不能进行背景分析所需的多层次建模。例如，如果没有包含城市一级种族构成显著差异的数据集，就无法得出关于地方种族多样性水平如何影响基于群体的态度和行为的可靠结论。对种族间冲突的政治影响的研究将导致对先前研究的智力进步，因为该项目将分析拉美裔、盎格鲁人和非裔美国人在不同水平和类型的基于群体的多样性下的当地政治行为。此外，该项目还将研究个人对基于群体的竞争的看法与实际投票行为之间的联系。最后，到目前为止，地方选举是美国最常见的选举政治形式，但具有讽刺意味的是，地方选举是政治学家所知最少的选举论坛。关于地方民主的质量以及各种结构、经济和社会背景对选民的作用，这项研究将提供比现在可能的更确凿的答案。这个项目包括几个更广泛的影响。这个项目产生的数据将对城市政治、基于群体的政治、基于群体的仇恨的起源以及美国总体政治行为的研究产生深远的影响。此外，该项目将促进对所涉研究生和本科生的实质性和方法性培训，特别是对代表人数不足的群体的学生以及对群体关系和基于群体的政治感兴趣的学生。在一个层面上，这项研究试图解释在不同的多样性条件下出现的各种基于群体的紧张关系。然而，在另一个层面上，这项研究将确定制度、政治和背景因素，这些因素可能会将基于群体的仇恨和种族间冲突降至最低。

This collaborative project is concerned with contextual influences on intergroup relations and political behavior in urban settings. A multi-city survey (accompanied by aggregate city-level data) will assess the relative importance of political, social and economic contexts on individual-level attitude formation and political behavior. The central area of concern pertains to the development of group-based attitudes and their relative salience for local voting behavior. This first of its kind data set will advance scientific knowledge of the sources of intergroup animus, the conditions that give rise to perceived intergroup rivalries, and the political ramifications of intergroup conflict. Scholars interested in the politics of racial and ethnic diversity typically look to cities as the most dynamic places to study individual-level attitudes and political choices in the context of demographic change. The extraordinary institutional, social and economic variance across cities enables contextual research on questions pertaining to the development of intergroup attitudes, public opinion and the instigators of group-based voting behavior. To date, collective knowledge on this subject has been derived from a small number of case studies or national probability samples that do not allow for the multi-level modeling that contextual analyses require. For example, one cannot draw robust conclusions about how local levels of racial diversity affect group-based attitudes and behaviors without a data set that includes substantial variance in city-level racial composition. The research on the political implications of interracial conflict will result in an intellectual advancement over prior research, as the project will analyze the local political behavior of Latinos, Anglos and African Americans under varying levels and types of group-based diversity. Additionally, the project will study the link between individual perceptions of group-based competition with actual voting behavior. Finally, local elections are by far the most frequently occurring form of electoral politics in the U.S., and yet, ironically, they are the electoral forum about which political scientists know the least. This study will allow for more conclusive answers than are now possible about the quality of local democracy and the role that various structural, economic and social contexts have on voters. This project includes several broader impacts. The data produced from this project will have a profound impact on the study of urban politics, group-based politics, the genesis of group-based animosities, and American political behavior generally. Additionally, this project will facilitate substantive and methodological training for graduate and undergraduate students involved, especially students from underrepresented groups and those interested in group relations and group-based politics. On one level this study looks to explain the kinds of group-based tensions that arise under various conditions of diversity. On another level, however, this research will identify institutional, political and contextual factors that can potentially minimize group-based animosities and interracial conflict.