Politics and Political Participation

1. Politics and Political Participation Theory And Examples

2. Modernization Theory 1. Ethnic activism would disappear as ethnic distinctions become less important. OR, • Ethnic conflict would heighten in the early stages of modernization to disappear as a society became completely modern

3. Examples of the continuing role of ethnicity • NAACP, AIM, La Raza Unida, Hmong Student Association • Racial/ethnic caucuses in Congress • The “race card” • Central and Eastern Europe • Hutu/Tutsi conflict in central Africa

4. Modernization should produce civic assimilation • Civic assimilation = the absence of value and power conflict between members of racial and ethnic groups • Promoted by identificational assimilation and growing socioeconomic distinctions within racial groups: people would organize around economic issues rather than ethnicity.

5. Why this has not occurred • Omi and Winant: racial formation • Race and ethnicity as one dimension of inequality • Immigration and globalization have enabled individuals to maintain ties with their home countries and ethnic groups • National Context: cultural and ethnic inclusiveness and exclusiveness • Germany • France • The United States and Great Britain

6. Questions • Do African Americans share enough in common to provide a basis for the activities of the NAACP, the Urban League, and other Black-centered organizations, OR • Should members of racial and ethnic groups organize across racial and ethnic boundaries, based on shared economic and political interests, OR • Some mixture of both?

7. Types of social movements based on race and ethnicity McAdam and Snow (1997) • Alterative: partially change the individual • WRAP (White Racial Awareness Program) • Redemptive: completely change the individual • Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)

8. Types of movements, continued • Reformative: limited change in society • Anti-Affirmative Action • English Only • NAACP • Transformative: totally change society -revolutionary movements -African National Congress

9. Types of leaders: The Civil Rights Movement (Weber) • Traditional Leaders: African American ministers • Rational/Legal Leaders: Frank Johnson of Alabama, federal judge, who ruled in 1955 that the Brown principles also applied to buses, public buildings, and public services • Charismatic Leaders (best remembered): Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, others

10. Other Ethnic Movements • The American Indian Civil Rights Movement • Mexican American efforts to erase Jim Crow-type policies in Texas • Migrant Farm Workers • Japanese American fight for reparations • B’nai B’Brith and the Anti-Defamation League • White Supremacist Organizations

11. Evidence of Civic Assimilation • Election of minority group members to local, state, and national offices • Ethnic issues are resolved through the mainstream political process • Ethnic politics in cities like NYC have become very complicated

12. Conclusions • The prediction of modernization theory that ethnicity would cease to be the basis of political mobilization has not come true. • Evidence of civic assimilation is there, BUT • Ethnic organizations and ethnic politics continue to be important and more complicated than ever before.