Suchergebnisse

In recent years, as government agencies have encouraged faith-based organizations to help ensure social welfare, many black churches have received grants to provide services to their neighborhoods' poorest residents. This collaboration, activist churches explain, is a way of enacting their faith and helping their neighborhoods. But as Michael Leo Owens demonstrates in God and Government in the Ghetto, this alliance also serves as a means for black clergy to reaffirm their political leadership and reposition moral authority in black civil society. Drawing on both survey data and fieldwork in New York City, Owens reveals that African American churches can use these newly forged connections with public agencies to influence policy and government responsiveness in a way that reaches beyond traditional electoral or protest politics. The churches and neighborhoods, Owens argues, can see a real benefit from that influence-but it may come at the expense of less involvement at the grassroots. Anyone with a stake in the changing strategies employed by churches as they fight for social justice will find God and Government in the Ghetto compelling reading.

Charge: As Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird note, collectively more than 80% of African Americans self-identify as Democrats according to surveys, and no Republican presidential candidate has won more than 13% of the Black vote since 1968. This is true despite the fact that at the individual level many African Americans are increasingly politically moderate and even conservative. Against this backdrop, what explains the enduring nature of African American support for the Democratic Party? In Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, White and Laird answer this question by developing the concept of "racialized social constraint," a unifying behavioral norm meant to empower African Americans as a group and developed through a shared history of struggle against oppression and for freedom and equality. White and Laird consider the historical development of this norm, how it is enforced, and its efficacy both in creating party loyalty and as a path to Black political power in the United States. On the cusp of perhaps the most consequential presidential election in American history, one for which African American turnout was crucial, we asked a range of leading political scientists to assess the relative strengths, weaknesses, and ramifications of this argument.

This commentary argues that community organizing among citizens with felony convictions may, combined with other factors, reduce the civic degradation of custodial populations in the future. It summarizes a critical case of the restoration of voting rights for probationers and parolees in Rhode Island via a state referendum to identify implications for engaging and sustaining felons in political activity. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

This commentary argues that community organizing among citizens with felony convictions may, combined with other factors, reduce the civic degradation of custodial populations in the future. It summarizes a critical case of the restoration of voting rights for probationers and parolees in Rhode Island via a state referendum to identify implications for engaging and sustaining felons in political activity.

Factors beside material self-interest may explain public attitudes toward cross-community sharing of resources in metropolitan areas. This article considers whether religion is a factor that influences public support for this regional perspective. Employing original survey data from metropolitan areas in Georgia, it examines the effects of religious tradition and religious salience on the breadth and strength of public support for the regional perspective, holding other factors constant (e.g., suburban residence and homeownership). The findings provide evidence that the choices people may make in metropolitan areas regarding whether to commune with others are open to multiple sources of influence, inclusive of religion.

Objective.To determine the effects of clergy attitudes on the willingness of congregations to seek public funding to provide social welfare.Methods.Survey data are drawn from a probability sample of clergy leading congregations in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. A logistic regression model examines the effects of clergy attitudes on the potential pursuit of public funding by congregations.Results.Controlling for a set of congregation attributes, a positive attitude toward partnerships between congregations and secular groups and a fear of government entanglement with religion are the strongest attitudinal predictors of congregation willingness to pursue public funding. However, attributes, particularly the racial composition of members and denominational affiliation, also predict congregation willingness to seek public funding.Conclusions.Congregation willingness to pursue public funding is a function of clergy attitudes and congregation attributes, which has implications for politics and public policy.

Objective: To determine the effects of clergy attitudes on the willingness of congregations to seek public funding to provide social welfare. Methods: Survey data are drawn from a probability sample of clergy leading congregations in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. A logistic regression model examines the effects of clergy attitudes on the potential pursuit of public funding by congregations. Results: Controlling for a set of congregation attributes, a positive attitude toward partnerships between congregations and secular groups and a fear of government entanglement with religion are the strongest attitudinal predictors of congregation willingness to pursue public funding. However, attributes, particularly the racial composition of members and denominational affiliation, also predict congregation willingness to seek public funding. Conclusions: Congregation willingness to pursue public funding is a function of clergy attitudes and congregation attributes, which has implications for politics and public policy. Tables, 3, References. Adapted from the source document.