U.S. Politics And Society: Latino Political Participation Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

For quite some time, the discussion of Latinos in the United States has focused primarily on their rapid population growth and recent residential location in nontraditional areas of the country. Now over 45 million strong, Latinos constitute more than 15 percent of the total U.S. population, and the population of sixteen states includes at least one-half million Latinos. The early and prolonged presidential politics of 2008 also brought notice to the role of Latinos’ electoral political participation. Thus, four aspects are significant for political scientists: (1) Latinos’ levels of electoral participation (i.e., registration and turnout) and contributing factors, (2) partisan affiliation and preferences, (3) the political engagement among the foreign-born segment of the Latino community, and (4) political mobilization.

The Gaining Latino Electorate

In an earlier epoch of Latino politics, a descriptive saying was “if they vote, they count.” In essence, relatively low levels of voter registration and turnout have characterized the predominant patter n of Latino electoral participation. At the same time, phenomenal growth is having an impact in the electoral arena. More noticeably, the current presidential nomination process has resulted in extensive direct or targeted efforts by presidential campaigns to attract Latino voters.

More attention is now given to this segment of the electorate for a number of reasons. Latinos reside in the larger electoral college states. Second, their proportion of the electorate is still small (in 2006, approximately 7 percent), yet their rate of share of the total electorate is growing faster than any other population segment. Third, the Latino electorate shows signs of greater interest and attention to politics, saliency of policy concerns, and keener interests in evaluating political parties and candidates. Fourth, Latinos’ numbers as naturalized citizens are increasing.

Latino communities have been undervalued as an electoral base because of their more youthful population and higher percentage of foreign-born noncitizens. In 2006, 61 percent of Latinos were ineligible to register to vote: 34 percent were under the age of 18, and 26 percent were noncitizens. This compares to 24 percent and 35 percent respectively for ineligible Anglo-American and African American voters. Recently, levels of naturalization among foreign-born Latinos, especially

Mexicans, have risen. In addition to established factors of acculturation, English language proficiency, gains in educational attainment, more years in the United States, and accumulation of socioeconomic equity, the increase of anti-immigrant referenda and federal and state legislation have served as external “stimuli” for many immigrants to pursue naturalization as what some consider a defensive strategy.

Party Affiliation And Support

Conventional wisdom says that most Latinos are Democrats, but that they have weaker party affiliation than other Democratic identifiers. The extant literature notes that the role of parental socialization, political orientations (e.g., trust in government, efficacy, etc.), public policy preferences and issues, along with retrospective political and economic evaluations, are key determinants of party preferences. However, f actors such as national origin background, presence of panethnic identity, generational status in the United States, and English language proficiency are important additions. Demographically, with more females than males, being older, and, to a more limited degree, level of educational attainment correlate with being a Democrat. Ironically, social conservative appeals by the Republican Party, and emphasis on less government, contrasts from Latinos’ support of a greater role for government. Ideologically, Latinos display moderate to liberal positions, but policy positions vary across economic, social, and foreign policy issue areas. For example, on the policy issues of immigration, education, and the economy, Latinos take a more liberal and governmental supportive stance. On the other hand, Latinos who identify themselves as Republicans exhibit higher levels of trust in government, and identify themselves as Americans more so than their Latino Democratic counterparts. Finally, the current partisan trend indicating an increase among Americans who call themselves Independents is evident among Latinos, being truer for younger Latinos.

Since the 2000 elections, more discussion about the higher level of Latino support for George W. Bush indicates a possible partisan shift. His campaign themes of traditional values—faith, hard work, family, socioeconomic mobility, and social conservatism are pillars of the Republican Party’s appeals to Latinos. Yet, the gains of the 2000 national elections seem short-lived. Since 2002, there has been an eight to eleven percentage point shift of Latinos toward the Democratic Party. Contributing factors were the decline of President Bush’s evaluations, anti-immigrant policies, and rhetoric by Republican leadership, favorable views for expanded government to solve problems, limited efforts by Republican Party leadership to invest in a Latino strategy, and lower salience of family values as a key determinant in candidate and political party choices. Finally, Latinos’ assessment of which party is most responsive to their concerns is almost a ratio of five to one in favor of the Democratic Party—44 percent compared to 8 percent. At the same time, another 41 percent indicate no difference in either party’s responsiveness.

Immigrants And Nonelectoral Political Participation

For the most part, Latino immigrants have been viewed as economic migrants, seeking a better life in America, with the possibility of making their new country their permanent home, or perhaps returning to their home country with their economic successes. Either viewed as apolitical or civically isolated, the lack of citizenship status for Latino immigrants was considered synonymous for being politically removed from the U.S. political system. Yet both historically and in recent times, Latino immigrants have been involved in U.S. organizational and civic life. From mutual aid societies, labor organizations, neighborhood associations, and educational advocacy efforts, the political life of Latino immigrants has been evident in the nonelectoral arenas of U.S. politics. Individual factors such as greater English language proficiency, higher educational levels, being female, being older, higher income levels, and migration to the United States for better opportunities enhance a more politically active immigrant segment. The external negative climate directed toward undocumented Latinos has also activated their involvement in collective activities.

The recent vocal mood of anti-immigrant sentiments and policies has activated even more visible immigrant political behaviors. Significantly, the “hostile environment” toward foreigners, undocumented immigrants, and Latinos has resulted in a heightened political awareness and activism for both foreign-born and native-born Latinos. The extant research reinforces the view that all Latinos have lower levels of nonelectoral participation in comparison to non-Latinos. Native-born Latinos are seen as more engaged than their foreign-born counterparts, but recent works by Matt Barreto and Jose Munoz, along with Alejandro Portes and colleagues, document at least comparable levels of nonelectoral participation for all Latino subgroups. In addition, many scholars of Latino politics strongly suggest that a more complete characterization of Latinos’ political domains must include nonelectoral arenas.

Mobilization

The trend of greater political awareness and activism has carried over into electoral politics for those who can vote, and has been spurred by mobilization efforts of Latino-based organizations, labor unions, and, to a lesser extent, political parties and campaigns. The more effective mobilization efforts include direct contact, mobilizers of similar ethnic and cultural background, and effective use of Spanish and English media. During the 2008 presidential primaries, record numbers of Latinos registered and voted in state primaries. Latinos’ share of the primary electorate has increased dramatically as well as increased attention to politics. This pattern carried over in the November general elections with Latinos highest turnout and proportion of the electorate. Nationally, 67 percent of Latinos voted for Democrat Barack Obama while only 31 percent voted for Republican John McCain.

Historically, Latino political participation has been lower compared to that of other groups. Yet since the mid-1990s, demographic growth, increased organizational involvement in political matters, clarity of issue priorities, an external negative political climate, and growing attention and targeting by organizations have contributed to an upward slope of Latino political involvement. The policy and partisan impact is still in the process of defining how successful support of partisan candidates and public policies can encourage a closer reflection of the policy preferences of most Latinos. That is, the impact of heightened political engagement in terms of affecting policy agendas and outputs remains to be seen. That success would include continued gains in the number of Latino representatives, greater political access, and greater influence in the policy-making process.

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