Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- I. Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Puzzle of Representation -- II. Black Members of Congress -- Chapter 2. Black Members of Congress -- Chapter 3. The Elections of Blacks to Congress -- III. Representing Black Interests -- Chapter 4. Legislative Styles and Voting Records -- Chapter 5. Symbols and Substance -- IV. The View from Black Constituents -- Chapter 6. Blacks' Evaluations of House Members: Does Race Matter? -- Chapter 7. Descriptive Representation and Black Political Empowerment -- Chapter 8. Descriptive Representation and Trust in Government -- V. Conclusion -- Chapter 9. The Future of Black Faces in the U.S. Congres s -- Appendix A . The 1996 National Black Election Study -- Appendix B . List of Black Members of the U.S. Congres s -- Notes -- References -- Index

Black policymakers and a theory of concordance -- President Carter and the old CBC -- Black house democrats in the Reagan-Bush years -- President Clinton and the new CBC -- President Bush and the New Black Moderates -- President Obama and Black political incorporation -- The moderating effect of institutional pressures -- The new CBC.

In political opinion surveys from the 1950s through the 1970s, African Americans were consistently among the most liberal groups in the United States and were much further to the left than White Americans on most issues. Starting in the 1980s, Black public opinion began to move to the center, and this trend has deepened since. Why is this the case?. Katherine Tate contends that Black political incorporation and increased affluence since the civil rights movement have made Black politics and public opinion more moderate over time. Black leaders now have greater opportunity to participate in mainstream politics, and Blacks look to elected officials rather than activists for political leadership. Black socioeconomic concerns have moved to the center as poverty has declined and their economic opportunities have improved. Based on solid analysis of public opinion data from the 1970s to the present, Tate examines how Black opinions on welfare, affirmative action, crime control, school vouchers, civil rights for other minorities, immigration, the environment, and U.S. foreign policy have changed.

Jane Mansbridge (1999) challenges critics of descriptive representation, writing that it leads to improvements in substantive representation. Theorists, however, continue to debate the degree to which groups can be represented by single individuals in government as gains in descriptive representation fail to be transformative. The effects of descriptive representation are more complex than they are often presented as new descriptive representatives do not always win acceptance. Even as there are substantive policy gains through descriptive representation, there are also setbacks for groups through the mobilization of opposition groups. There is also pressure on descriptive representatives to moderate their positions and be less vocal. Given the dominant position of privileged groups and their conservative ideologies that defend inequality, substantive gains from descriptive representation are less than implied by descriptive representation advocates.

Adapted from the source document.

Minority incorporation or empowerment theories have not advanced much beyond the assertion that minority influence increases as their numbers in office increase. However, political incorporation is a two-sided process. Not only do minorities struggle for representation in the political system, fighting established groups in the system and racism, but there is a second struggle over how these newly-incorporated groups will lead. Incorporation favors political moderation even as newly-incorporated liberal members seek to liberalize their party. Over time, there is concordance. Data analyzed from Poole and Rosenthal (2007) show that African American House members have become less liberal over time as the Democratic Party has liberalized. Furthermore, African American legislators are less likely to vote as a bloc (except on the CBC's alternative budget), and have joined other caucus groups as they seek to expand their influence as both liberals and moderates.

This paper argues that African-American House legislators have become less radical, engaging in less forceful ideological battles with the Democratic Party over its policy leadership. They have become simultaneously more prone to support policy leadership from Democratic presidents as well. This argument is based on a study of floor votes by black legislators on budget resolutions in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as an analysis of presidential support and party unity scores from 1977 to 2008 in CQ Almanacs. Since the 1990s, based on a number of factors, black House members are less likely to challenge Democratic presidential and party leadership as radical voices on the political left. This decline in black radicalism, I contend, has implications for the concept of African-American politics as an organized challenge to the racial status of blacks.

This paper argues that African-American House legislators have become less radical, engaging in less forceful ideological battles with the Democratic Party over its policy leadership. They have become simultaneously more prone to support policy leadership from Democratic presidents as well. This argument is based on a study of floor votes by black legislators on budget resolutions in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as an analysis of presidential support and party unity scores from 1977 to 2008 in CQ Almanacs. Since the 1990s, based on a number of factors, black House members are less likely to challenge Democratic presidential and party leadership as radical voices on the political left. This decline in black radicalism, I contend, has implications for the concept of African-American politics as an organized challenge to the racial status of blacks. Adapted from the source document.

The extension of the temporary provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act sailed through Congress and was signed into law by President George Bush on July 27, 2006 without any major turbulence. The absence of major politics over its renewal in 2006 is striking when compared to the partisan battles in its 1982 extension. President Bush and the Republicans had an opportunity to water down the VRA, given that Blacks appear less politically radical or extremely liberal than in the 1980s. But GOP leaders did not pursue a southern strategy by contesting the VRA. Their reluctance confirms that Black power is solid. Black members of Congress framed the issue in a way that the administration recognized that blacks and minorities would mobilize if VRA renewal was challenged in a significant way.