How Do We Get Along? Linked Fate, Political Allies, and Issue Coalitions
33 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2009 Last revised: 7 Sep 2009
Date Written: 2009
Abstract
How cohesive are the nation’s female and male minority elected officials in their group identities, political networks, and public policy outlooks? This paper empirically evaluates the coalition-building potentials of these elected officials in their sense of minority group linked fate, sources of policy support, and policy stands on key issues of pressing importance to women and minorities: immigrant rights, contested new rights, welfare and work, minority rights, among others. We assess the statistical significance of the intersecting identities of race and gender in their ability to structure the elected officials’ potentials to form political coalitions based on common identity, political allies, and issue concerns. We explore possible confounding factors in this process such as experiences of socialization, social networks, perceived structural barriers, and personal political orientations and other resources.
Keywords: Race, Ethnitiy, Gender, Elected Officials, Coalition, Identity
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