Premium
White‐Voter Response to Black Political Power: The Case of New Orleans, 1980–1994
Author(s) -
Liu Baodong,
Vanderleeuw James M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.1999.tb00528.x
Subject(s) - voting , white (mutation) , context (archaeology) , politics , voting behavior , racism , political science , power (physics) , white supremacy , crossover , political economy , sociology , history , law , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , gene , artificial intelligence
This paper examines three current theories employed to explain white voting behavior—racial threat, symbolic racism, and racial tolerance. In so doing, it examines white crossover voting across a series of biracial municipal elections in New Orleans from 1980 through 1994. During this period the City of New Orleans underwent a pronounced change in its racial composition and in the shift from white to black political power. Within the context of this transition, the findings are most compatible with the racial tolerance explanation of white voting behavior. However, these findings suggest that white‐voter support for black candidates is in fact a more complex process than suggested by any of these three theories.