Mobilization, counter-mobilization and the politics of race

This article examines the relationships among several political phenomena that have characterized American politics during the post-Second World War era: Republican success in presidential politics, Democratic success in controlling the House of Representatives, and the political mobilization of African-American citizens. We argue that the logic of federalism and single- member districts, combined with geographically concentrated distributions of racial and ethnic groups, has rendered a spatially complex political terrain. In some parts of that terrain, race does not impinge on electoral politics but in other parts, politics revolves around race. And thus both parties' electoral fortunes are tied to coalitional constraints that are associated with particular locales, producing varying consequences for congressional and presidential elections. The empirical focus of our paper is on individual voters in presidential elections from 1952 to 1988, and in off-year congressional elections from 1958 to 1986. We are particularly concerned with the local political environments of coalition formation, and thus we engage in a multilevel analysis of voters in counties, located within particular regions.