What's the Matter with Arkansas? Symbolic Racism and 2008 Presidential Candidate Support.

The 2008 presidential election presented voters with the nation's first African American presidential candidate. Symbolic racism theory suggests that Obama's presence on the national ticket will activate a range of racial attitudes across the electorate. The authors examine two statewide surveys fro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 286 - 303
Autores principales: Ford, Pearl K., Maxwell, Angie, Shields, Todd
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell June 2010
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The 2008 presidential election presented voters with the nation's first African American presidential candidate. Symbolic racism theory suggests that Obama's presence on the national ticket will activate a range of racial attitudes across the electorate. The authors examine two statewide surveys from Arkansas and Georgia in order to explore the importance of symbolic racism across different campaign contexts. The findings suggest that voting behavior was significantly influenced by symbolic racism. Consequently, the authors extend the symbolic racism literature by demonstrating the effects of these attitudes at the national level and across different campaign environments.