Study finds racial difference in prevalence of political advocacy organizations

Sarah Reckhow’s “The Distinct Patterns of Organized and Elected Representation of Racial and Ethnic Groups,” published in Urban Affairs, uses data from Melissa DATA and newspaper accounts.   She finds that, for Latinos and Asian-Americans, the group’s proportion in the population increases the number of political advocay organizations; for African-Americans, however, the pattern does not hold.  From the abstract: Studies of minority political incorporation have demonstrated that advocacy organizations are critical for advancing minority electoral success and policy change. Drawing on an original data set of 30 midsized U.S. cities, the author evaluates the extent of organized representation of racial and ethnic groups and the effect of organized representation on elected representation. Latinos and Asian-Americans both have greater numbers of local advocacy organizations as the groups’ proportion of the population increases. Yet many cities with sizable African-American populations have a lower density of advocacy organizations than cities with fewer African-Americans. A smaller field of organizations increases elected representation for African-Americans but not for Latinos.