Descriptive representation and political participation

Political Efficacy and political participation

The Effect of Black Congressional Representation on Political Participation

T he election of African Americans to Congress is a primary achievement of the post–civil rights transition from protest to politics. I evaluate the link between black congressional representation and political engagement, as measured by voting participation. There are two related objectives: Construct a broader model of participation that takes into account a key component of the political env...

Depression and Political Participation.

In this paper, I propose that depression is a political phenomenon insofar as it has political sources and consequences. I then investigate one aspect of this argument-whether depression reduces participation. I hypothesize that individuals with depression lack the motivation and physical capacity to vote and engage in other forms of political participation due to somatic problems and feelings ...

Family Ties and Political Participation

We establish an inverse relationship between family ties, generalized trust and political participation. The more individuals rely on the family as a provider of services, insurance, transfer of resources, the lower is civic engagement and political participation. The latter, together with trust, are part of what is known as social capital, therefore in this paper we contribute to the investiga...

Genes, Games, and Political Participation

Groups often ask their members to contribute to collective activities. But the benefits of these activities often do not offset the costs of individual participation. Everyone in the group may be better off if everyone cooperates, but each person individually may be better off not cooperating. As a result, we might expect cooperation to fail. Yet modern human society relies on cooperation at a ...