Politics and Political Participation

Theory

And

Examples

Modernization Theory

1. Ethnic activism would disappear as ethnic distinctions become less important. OR,

2. Ethnic conflict would heighten in the early stages of modernization to disappear as a society became completely modern

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

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.

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

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?

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)

Types of movements, continued

• Reformative: limited change in society– Anti-Affirmative Action– English Only– NAACP

• Transformative: totally change society-revolutionary movements

-African National Congress

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

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

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

Conclusions

1. The prediction of modernization theory that ethnicity would cease to be the basis of political mobilization has not come true.

2. Evidence of civic assimilation is there, BUT

3. Ethnic organizations and ethnic politics continue to be important and more complicated than ever before.