Zoltan L. Hajnal - Why Americans Dont Join the Party: Race, Immigration, and the Failure (Of Political Parties) to Engage the Electorate

RACE, IMMIGRATION, AND THE FAILURE (OF POLITICAL PARTIES) TO ENGAGE THE ELECTORATE

Zoltan L. Hajnal
Taeku Lee

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2011 by Princeton University Press
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Jacket art: We March Today We Vote Tomorrow. Photograph by Alex Thamer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hajnal, Zoltan, 1968
Why Americans dont join the party : race, immigration, and the failure (of political parties) to engage the electorate / Zoltan L. Hajnal, Taeku Lee.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-14878-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-691-14879-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Identity politicsUnited States. 2. AllegianceUnited States. 3. Political alienationUnited States. 4. Democratic Party (U.S.)Membership. 5. Republican Party (U.S. : 1854 )Membership. 6. African Americans Politics and government. 7. United StatesEmigration and immigrationPolitical aspects. I. Lee, Taeku. II. Title.
JK1764.H34 2011
324.273011dc22 2010029112

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Sabon

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Chapter 1
Introduction

Chapter 2
Party Identifcation: The Historical and Ontological Origins of a Concept

Chapter 3
Identity, Ideology, Information, and the Dimensionality of Nonpartisanship

Chapter 4
Leaving the Mule Behind: Independents and African American Partisanship

Chapter 5
What Does It Mean to Be a Partisan?

Chapter 6
The Sequential Logic of Latino and Asian American Partisanship

Chapter 7
Beyond the Middle: Ambivalence, Extremism, and White Nonpartisans

Chapter 8
The Electoral Implications of Nonpartisanship

Chapter 9
Conclusion

This is a book about relationships. It is about the ties that Americans of diverse racial and ethnic colors have, or fail to have, to the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. For some, the relationship is a lifelong bond, an arranged political marriage forged out of the class position or ascriptive identities one is born into and the formative experiences of preadult socialization. For others, it is a relationship of abnegation and alienation, a bittersweet solitude rendered by disenchantment, frustration, and iconoclasm. And for yet others, the relationship is embryonic, a liminal state that passes through stages of uncertainty, belonging, and neglect. These divergent attachments are moored by our sense of who we are (identity), what believe in (ideology), and how we know (information).

The book is also about the relationship that the two of us have had with each other and with this project. That relationship began with an animated conversation over breakfast at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association many, many moons ago (which, in frightfully clear terms, translates to 10 years, or 121 moons). Between gulps of hot coffee and noshes of toast and jam, we agreed that this project was inherently interesting and potentially important. In passing, we probably also noted the many theoretical roadblocks and empirical thickets that stood between our fedgling ideas and a completed and compelling book. Judging by the number of years it took to complete, it is clear that we underestimated the level of hoe work and sheer lunacy required to get this far. Along the way, however, we occasionally found time to set our shovels aside, savor moments of discovery, and delight in our deepening friendship.

No relationship (no matter how soaring or sordid) survives without sustaining social and pecuniary resources. Ours is no exception. Our family, friends, colleagues, and supporting institutions have contributed enormously to this undertaking. We benefted from conversations (real and virtual) with colleagues around the country who gave generously of their time while asking for nothing in return. In particular, we are grateful to (in alphabetical order) Larry Bobo, Cathy Cohen, Michael Dawson, Paul Frymer, Claudine Gay, Donald Green, Susan Herbst, Vincent Hutch-ings, Michael Jones-Correa, Jane Junn, Don Kinder, Eric Oliver, Christopher Parker, Karthick Ramakrishnan, Ricardo Ramrez, Mark Sawyer, David Sears, Jessica Trounstine, Nicholas Valentino, and Janelle Wong, as well as anonymous reviewers for Princeton University Press and the Uni- x Acknowledgments versity of Chicago Press, for their insightful comments, sage advice, and timely nudges.

We also had the privilege of presenting this project to audiences at several of the nations best universities. Feedback (negative and positive) from participants at the Nation of Immigrants conference at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Third Minnesota Symposium on Political Psychology were instrumental in the early stages of this project. Our ideas and arguments got much needed spit and polish from conference, colloquium, and seminar participants at the University of Chicago, UCLA, UCSD, and the audience members and fellow panelists at several annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association and the American Political Science Association. There is, without question, a degree of pomp and circumstance involved in these public forums for the presentation of scholarly work, but in our case at least, also a measure of genuine interchange and illumination.

Equally critical to a long-lived project such as this one are relationships built on monetary sustenance and institutional support. We benefted from the generosity of the Russell Sage Foundation; the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University; the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego; and the Institute for Governmental Studies and the Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity at the University of California, Berkeley. We thank Aixa Cintron-Velez at the Russell Sage Foundation for support that sustained our efforts through most of one critical summer of this project. Larry Bartelss center at Princeton provided Hajnal with a one-year fellowship, an unparalleled intellectual environment, time off from teaching, and friendly support. Wayne Cornelius and the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies provided Hajnal with another great home and more helpful comments from smart colleagues. Bruce Cain and Jack Citrin, at the Institute for Government Studies, and Maria Blanco and Christopher Edley, at the Warren Institute, were instrumental in providing research support and in creating a thriving scholarly community for research on race and immigration at Berkeley for Taeku Lee.

The University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Diego, also provided nurturing, sustaining professional homes for this project. At UCSD, Marisa Abrajano, Amy Bridges, Gary Jacob-son, Thad Kousser, and Jessica Trounstine all offered wise counsel and, even more important, their friendship. At Berkeley, Wendy Brown, Pradeep Chhibber, Jack Citrin, Lisa Garca Bedolla, Laura Stoker, and Rob van Houweling were especially pivotal in their support and persuasive in their inputs on the project; Nicole Fox, Loan Le, Ayn Lowry, Michael Murakami, Tatishe Nteta, and Chip Reese gave the project a hand up through their expert research and editorial assistance. A special shout-out goes to Pepper Culpepper, Archon Fung, and Sanjeev Khagram, Taekus band of brothers from his previous home base at Harvards Kennedy School of Government. We would also be remiss not to note that both Berkeley and UCSD had the foresight (read: guilelessness) to offer us gainful employment (eventually, with tenure, even!), entrust us with the paramount work of teaching Californias future leaders and training its future scholars, and secure for us unmatched amenities for free and critical inquiry. These institutions are capstones in Californias public education system, a national treasure that is imperiled by current political and economic circumstances. They demand our gratitude, pride, and collective struggle for their continued fourishing.