Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T05:25:50.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

At the Borders of Identity: Identity Construction and Racial Bloc Voting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2019

Adam S. Harris Open the ORCID record for Adam S. Harris [Opens in a new window]
Adam S. Harris*
Affiliation:
University College London
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Adam Harris, University College London, London, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Why are some voters less likely to align with their group when group-based voting is both the norm and advantageous? I argue that the answer to this question can be found in the extent to which individuals are apparently consistent with the prototypical individual in their group. I develop a concept of racial distance, which improves upon the in-group out-group focus of the race and ethnic politics literature. Empirically, I investigate this relationship in South Africa using an original panel survey, which brackets the 2014 national elections. I find that those who are not readily identified as members of their group are less likely to vote with their group and more likely to change their vote due to an election campaign. Analyzing data from the South Africa 2016 the US 2012 elections suggests that this relationship holds for racial majorities but only minorities with a relatively weak sense of solidarity.

Keywords

raceracial distancevoter behavioridentity constructionSouth Africa
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 326 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to thank Kanchan Chandra, Eric Dickson, Macartan Humphreys, and Cyrus Samii for excellent advisement. And for comments on earlier versions, I thank participants at the Contemporary African Political Economy Research Seminar (CAPERS), and participants at the Research Unit in Behavioral Economics and Neuroeconomics (RUBEN) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Research Seminars at the University of Cape Town, participants in the General Research Seminar (AFS) in the Political Science Department of Gothenburg University, as well as Claire Adida, Leo Arriola, Pablo Barbera, Sarah Brierley, Danny Choi, Patrick Egan, Omar Garcia-Ponce, Jeremy Horowitz, Marcus Johnson, Kristen Kao, Franziska Keller, Yanna Krupnikov, Staffan Lindberg, Ellen Lust, Kyle Marquardt, Alan Potter, Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, Elizabeth Sperber, David Stasavage, and Shana Warren. All errors are my own. I also want to thank Mona Africa, Rasheda Ariefdien, Johan Eyssyen, Bernadette Johnson, and Feddie Stevens for excellent research assistance. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1323154. Funding for this project also came from the NYU Wilf Family Department of Politics, the NYU Africa House, the Center for Experimental Social Science (CESS) at NYU, and the Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD) at Gothenburg University.

References

REFERENCES

Abdelal, Rawi, Herrera, Yoshiko M., Iain Johnston, Alastair, and McDermott, Rose. 2006. “Identity as a Variable.” Perspectives on Politics 4(4): 695–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adhikari, M. 2009. Burdened by Race: Coloured Identities in Southern Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: UCT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adida, Claire L., Gottlieb, Jessica, Kramon, Eric, and McClendon, Gwyneth. 2017. “Overcoming or Reinforcing Coethnic Preferences: An Experiment on Information and Ethnic Voting.” Working Paper UCSD.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahuja, Amit, Ostermann, Susan, and Mehta, Aashish. 2016. “Is Only Fair Lovely in Indian Politics?” Race, Ethnicity and Politics 1(1): 227–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alcoff, Linda. 2006. Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Lucius, Jones, Mack, Tate, Katherine, and Hutchings, Vincent. 2014. African Americans and the American Political System. 5 ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik. 1969. Ethnic Group Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Bowman, Phillip J., Muhammad, Ray, and Ifatunji, Mosi. 2004. Skin Tone, Class, and Racial Attitudes Among African Americans. In Skin Deep: How Race and Complexion Matter in the “Color Blind” Era., eds. Cedric Herring, Verna M. Keith, and Hayward Derrick Horton. University of Illinois, Chicago: Chicago University Press, pp. 128–58.Google Scholar
Brewer, Marilynn B. 1993. “Social Identity, Distinctiveness, and In-group Homogeneity.” Social Cognition 11: 150–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan. 2012. Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Lauren D. 2016. “Beyond Black and White: Biracial Attitudes in Contemporary U.S. Politics.” American Political Science Review 110(1): 52–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Lauren. 2018. Politics Beyond Black and White: Biracial Identity and Attitudes in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, M. C. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
de Kadt, Daniel, and Sands, Melissa. 2019. “Segregation Drives Voting Behavior: New Evidence from South Africa.” Political Behavior.Google Scholar
Dickson, Eric, and Scheve, Kenneth. 2006. “Social Identity, Political Speech, and Electoral Competition.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 18(1): 5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolby, Nadine E. 2001. Constructing Race: Youth, Identity, and Popular Culture in South Africa. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Dominguez, Virginia R. 1986. White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Eberhardt, Jennifer, Davies, Paul, Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie, and Lynn Johnson, Sheri. 2006. “Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes.” Psychological Science 17(5): 383–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eifert, Benn, Miguel, Edward, and Posner, Daniel N.. 2010. “Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa.” American Journal of Political Science 54(2): 494–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erasmus, Zimitri. 2001. “Introduction: Re-Imagining Coloured Identities in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” In Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town, ed. Zimitri Erasmus. Cape Town, South Africa: Kwela Books, pp. 1–13.Google Scholar
Ferree, Karen E. 2011. Framing the Race in South Africa: The Political Origins of Racial Census Elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fryer, Roland, and Jackson, Matthew O.. 2008. “A Categorical Model of Cognition and Biased Decision Making.” The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics 8(1): 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gay, Claudine. 2002. “Spirals of Trust? The Effect of Descriptive Representation on the Relationship between Citizens and Their Government.” American Journal of Political Science 46(4): 717–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Loraine, Blighaut, Suzanne, Moroney, Sean, and Cooper, Carole. 1978. Survey of Race Relations in South Africa. Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations.Google Scholar
Griffin, John, and Keane, Michael. 2006. “Descriptive Representation and the Composition of African American Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 50(4): 998–1012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grootes, Stephen. 2013. S.A. Politics Unspun. Two Dogs, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Harris, Adam, and Findley, Michael G.. 2014. “Is Ethnicity Identifiable: Lessons from an Experiment in South Africa.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58(1): 4–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Mark E. 2000. “Color Differences in the Socioeconomic Status of African American Men: Results from a Longitudinal Study.” Social Forces 78(4): 1437–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L., and Weaver, Vesla. 2007. “The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order.” Social Forces 86(2): 643–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, Jeremy. 2019. “Ethnicity and Campaign Effects in Africa's Multiethnic Democracies: Evidence from Kenya.” British Journal of Political Science, 49(3): 901–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, Margaret L. 2005. Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone. New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.Google Scholar
Hutchings, Vincent, Jefferson, Hakeen, Lewis, Neil, and Yadon, Nicole. 2016. “The Color of Our Skin and the Content of Our Politics: Exploring the Effects of Skin Tone on Policy Preferences Among African Americans.” https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e72b/d6675e2b6e8e2d9ac10d731e864b60de4e45.pdf (Accessed November 14, 2016).Google Scholar
Hutchings, Vincent, and Valentino, N.. 2004. “The Centrality of Race in American Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 7: 383–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ichino, Nahomi, and Nathan, Noah L.. 2013. “Crossing the Line: Local Ethnic Geography and Voting in Ghana.” American Political Science Review 107(2): 344–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jung, Courtney. 2000. Then I was Black: South African Political Identities in Transition. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Maddox, K., and Gray, S.. 2002. “Cognitive Representations of Black Americans: Re-exploring the Role of Skin Tone.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(2): 250–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marx, A. 1996. “Race-Making and the Nation-State.” World Politics 48(2): 180–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masuoka, Natalie, and Junn, Jane. 2013. The Politics of Belonging. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, Eric S. 2007. “Beyond the Racial Census: The Political Salience of Ethnolinguistic Cleavages in South Africa.” Comparative Political Studies 40(4): 435–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Arthur H., Gurin, Patricia, Gurin, Gerald, and Malanchuk, Oksana. 1981. “Group Consciousness and Political Participation.” American Journal of Political Science 25: 494–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolson, Greg. 2014. “Analysis: Land Reform in a Year of Election.” Daily Maverick. Available at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-02-26-analysis-land-reform-in-a-year-of-election/ (Accessed April 23, 2017).Google Scholar
Noah, Trevor. 2016. Born a Crime. New York: Spiegel and Grau.Google Scholar
Nobles, Melissa. 2000. Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Nosofsky, Robert M. 1986. “Attention, Similarity and the Identification-Categorization Relationship.” Journal of Experimental Psychology 115(1): 39–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posel, Deborah. 2001. “Race as Common Sense: Racial Classification in Twentieth-Century South Africa.” African Studies Review 44(2): 87–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, Daniel. 2005. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RNC. 2012. “Growth and Opportunity Project.” Available at: http://goproject.gop.com/rnc (Accessed December 4, 2016).Google Scholar
Seltzer, Richard, and Smith, Robert C.. 1991. “Color Differences in the Afro-American Community and the Differences They Make.” Journal of Black Studies 21(3): 279–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Maya, and Wasow, Omar. 2016. “Race as a Bundle of Sticks: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics.” Annual Review of Political Science 19: 499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shayo, Moses. 2009. “A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy: Nation, Class, and Redistribution.” American Political Science Review 103(2): 147–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Turner, J. C.. 1979. Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Chicago: Nelson-Hall chapter The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior, pp. 7–24.Google Scholar
Telles, Edward E. 2004. Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Telles, Edward E., and Paschel, Tianna. 2014. “Who is Black, White, or Mixed Race? How Skin Color, Status, and Nation Shape Racial Classification in Latin America.” American Journal of Sociology 120(3): 864–907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terry, Deborah, Hogg, Michael, and White, Katherine. 1999. “The Theory of Planned Behavior: Self-Identity, Social Identity, and Group Norms.” British Journal of Social Psychology 38(3): 225–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wade, T. J., Romano, M., and Blue, L.. 2004. “The Effect of African American Skin Color on Hiring and Preferences.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34(12): 2550–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Harris supplementary material

Harris supplementary material

Download Harris supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1 MB