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...

Article history: Received 21 June 2009 Received in revised form 6 April 2010 Accepted 27 June 2010 Available online 29 July 2010 Rational choice models predict that political competition and political participation have opposite effects on the size of government. We investigate these theories using data from a panel of 18 Latin American countries during the 20th century. Our research builds evi...