Faces of Inequality: Social Diversity in American Politics

ISBN-13: 9780195117141 / Angielski / Twarda / 1998 / 208 str.

Rodney E. Hero

Opis

The distinctive thesis of Faces of Inequality is that a state's racial and ethnic composition, as much as any other factor, shapes its political processes and policies. To understand state politics, therefore, we must consider them from the perspective of social diversity. Scholars have broadly acknowledged that racial and ethnic diversity are central to American political history, but Rodney E. Hero is the first to posit and systematically examine this diversity as essential to our understanding of contemporary American politics.

In these pages, Hero regards race/ethnicity as an American "dilemma" whose importance transcends state boundaries, yet whose impact upon U.S. politics varies widely. He classifies states' social diversity patterns as homogenous, heterogeneous, or bifurcated, and demonstrates how these patterns influence political tendencies. Social diversity, he finds, is strongly related not only to political processes, but also to specific policies and outcomes, such as educational policies, incarceration rates, and infant mortality. Hero's interpretation provides a new way of looking at state politics, one that causes us to broadly rethink U.S. politics from the standpoint of social diversity.

A bold interpretation of the American political experience (especially at the state level) that is as challenging as it is timely, Faces of Inequality will be of interest to all students of race and politics in contemporary America.

Recenzje

Rodney Hero confronts directly the weaknesses of Elazar's political culture thesis as the explanation for state-level political behavior and public policy decisions. Building on V. O. Key's belief that race is at the center of Southern politics, Hero expands on Key to argue that race is at the center of state politics in general. This is a provocative and important book that provides a new prism through which to view both state politics and public policy in America.