Community Identity and Political Behavior

235 Pages·2010·1.13 MB·English

by  Mary R. Anderson (auth.)

COMMUNITY IDENTITY AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR
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Community Identity and
Political Behavior
Mary R. Anderson
COMMUNITY IDENTITY AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR
Copyright © Mary R. Anderson, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-62191-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-38367-2 ISBN 978-0-230-10975-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230109759
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Mary R., 1973–
Community identity and political behavior / Mary R. Anderson.
p. cm.
1. Community organization—United States. 2. Community life—
United States. 3. Political participation—United States. 4. Community
development—United States—Citizen participation. 5. United States—
Politics and government. I. Title.
HN65.A687 2010
307.0973—dc22 2009041146
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: July 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to
my children Grace, Joe, and Will.
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
List of Appendices xiii
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction 1
2 A Research Design for Studying Sense of Community
and Political Behavior: Methodological Considerations 19
3 Measuring Sense of Community 35
4 Sense of Community, Efficacy, and Trust 53
5 Political Participation and Sense of Community 77
6 The Interplay between Sense of Community
and Political Discussion 95
7 The Relationship between Political Knowledge
and Sense of Community 109
8 An Alternate Approach: Simple Membership versus
Sense of Community 119
9 Broadening Our Perspective 131
Appendices 143
Notes 211
Bibliography 217
Index 223
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Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 Demographic Characteristics of Counties in Jury
Pool Sample 26
2.2 Demographic and Political Characteristics of Jury
Pool Sample 27
2.3 Demographic and Political Characteristics of Jury
Pool Respondents by County 28
2.4 Demographic and Political Characteristics of
Context Survey Sample 31
2.5 Demographic and Political Characteristics of
Telephone Survey Sample 32
3.1 Descriptive Statistics for Sense of
Community Items Used in Jury Pool Survey 41
3.2 Factor Loadings for Sense of Community Items
Used in Jury Pool Survey 41
3.3 Descriptive Statistics of Sense of
Community Scales for Jury Pool Survey 42
3.4 Descriptive Statistics for Sense of Community by
Context for Telephone Survey 48
3.5 Highest and Lowest Values for Sense of Community by
Context for Telephone Survey 50
4.1 The Effect of Sense of Community on Internal Efficacy:
Estimated via OLS and Ordered Logit 60
4.2 The Effect of Sense of Community on External Efficacy:
Estimated via OLS and Ordered Logit 64
4.3 The Effect of Sense of Community on Personal Trust:
Estimated via Ordered Logit 68
4.4 The Effect of Sense of Community on Political Trust:
Estimated via Ordered Logit 69
4.5 Predicted Probabilities for Sense of Community by
Number of Contexts for Internal Efficacy 73