Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Testing the Impact of Electoral Structures on Minority Office-Holding and Local Policies

这项研究询问地方选举结构是否对非裔美国人担任公职和公共政策结果产生影响。答案之所以重要，有两个原因。首先，对于想要在地方政治中增加话语权的少数群体来说，了解选举结构何时以及如何重要是很重要的。其次，在政治学中，了解政治机构何时以及如何发挥作用是一个更广泛的重要问题。本研究分为两个部分。第一部分考察了大型横截面数据集。这些数据被用来确定地方选举结构对非裔美国人在市议会和学校董事会任职的影响。反过来，分析显示了少数族裔代表的变化对政策结果的影响，例如市政当局的再分配支出和学区雇用少数族裔的情况。研究的第二部分着眼于1970年至1995年期间三个北部城市和三个南部城市根据人口匹配的市议会成员的投票模式。这些数据使PI能够更仔细地探索选举结构对政策结果的影响，以及白人和非裔美国人委员会成员之间的双种族联盟模式。

This research asks whether local electoral structures have an impact on African-American office-holding and public policy outcomes. The answer is important for two reasons. First, knowing when and how electoral structures matter is important for minority groups wanting to increase their voice in local politics. Second, knowing when and how political institutions matter is a broader question of importance within political science. This research has two parts. The first part examines large, cross-sectional data sets. These data are used to determine the impact of local electoral structures on African-American office-holding on city council and school boards. In turn the analysis shows the impact of changes in minority representation on policy outcomes such as redistributive spending by municipalities and minority hiring by school districts. The second part of the research looks at the voting patterns of city council members in three northern and three southern cities, matched on population, over the period 1970 to 1995. These data enable the PI to more carefully explore the impact of electoral structures on policy outcomes and bi-racial coalition patterns among white and African-American council members.