Here's our abstract y'all. Any complaints, suggestions, advice? (esp.
does "socialize" make sense in this context?)
Yuki and Doru
_Winning Strategies_
_How Race and Economic Opportunity Shaped the California Electorate_
Wedge issues aim to polarize the electorate and secure a majority for
the proposing party. However, already committed electorates are less
susceptible to this strategy than emerging constituencies. Several
racially charged propositions on California ballots, aimed at polarizing
the preferences of Whites and Latinos, led the latter to join the
Democrats? camp while affecting little change on the former group.
Unlike previous research suggested, we find no backlash from Whites
against the racial wedge issues employed by Republicans. Employing a
multidimensional model of partisan identification, we find that, holding
constant economic opportunities in the ?80s and ?90s, White party
allegiances remained mostly unchanged, while Latinos became firmly
lodged in the Democratic camp. We attribute previously reported
variations in the partisan makeup of the electorate to changes in
economic opportunity. Thus, wedge issues appeal only to unstable,
emerging electorates, and fail to muster enough momentum to persuade
already socialized voters.