ABSTRACT
This chapter considers four major sets of variables that are used to explain African Americans' political behavior: socioeconomic status, "participatory orientations," "compensation" or group involvement, and "empowerment." The first holds that blacks are socially and economically separated from the mainstream of America and are thereby less likely to participate in politics. A second set of factors used to explain political participation among African Americans is basic participatory orientations. A third has been referred to by some as "compensation". Group membership is the key variable here, serving important functions for African Americans. A fourth formulation is what Lawrence Bobo and Franklin D. Gilliam refer to as "empowerment". They found that blacks living in cities with black mayors are more politically active than either blacks in cities without black mayors or whites of comparable socioeconomic status. The chapter explores the national level survey data to test the ability of the different "models" to account for the political behavior of black Americans.
