Beth Reingold

American Identity and the Politics of Ethnic Change

This article explores the way subjective conceptions of national identity influence the mass publics reactions to the changing ethnic composition of American society. Using the symbolic politics model of opinion formation to analyze survey data collected in early 1988, the article demonstrates that normative beliefs about Americanism strongly influence general attitudes toward cultural minorities and, when the appropriate symbolic cues are present, policy preferences on ethnic issues.

Is American Nationalism Changing? Implications for Foreign Policy

This article analyzes the degree of popular consensus about a nations identity, core values, and mission as a source of social integration and a broad constraint on foreign policy-making. It identifies cosmopolitan liberalism, nativism, and multiculturalism as three rival ideologies of American nationalism, comparing their main principles and competing approaches toward integrating a diverse society. The paper presents a synthesis of recent survey evidence to assess the relative degree of support for these competing conceptions of American identity. The relationship of these conceptions to the foreign policy orientations delineated in the Wittkopf-Holsti-Rosenau typology is examined to speculate about how shifts in American nationalism may shape the general direction of foreign policy in the future.

The Impact of Descriptive Representation on Women’s Political Engagement: Does Party Matter?

Recent research raises doubts about whether the presence of women contesting or occupying prominent public office enhances women’s political engagement. Taking into account both gender and party congruence between politicians and constituents, the authors find that it is primarily female candidates of the same party who enhance women’s interest in politics. The stronger impact of party-congruent (over party-incongruent) female candidates can be attributed to either greater visibility or agreement on substantive issues. Party matters, but rather than obscuring the role of gender in electoral politics, it enhances our understanding of how, or under what conditions, it works.

Agenda Setting and African American Women in State Legislatures

SUMMARY Political scientists have, in recent years, uncovered substantial evidence that political representation in the United States is influenced by gender and race, yet generally examine the effects of gender entirely separate from the effects of race. In this article, we explore the agenda-setting behavior of African American female state legislators. We find that African American women do respond to both womens interests and black interests. We also find that while the sponsorship of black interest measures by African American women (or other legislators) is not influenced by the proportion of African Americans within the chamber, African American women are less likely to sponsor womens interest measures in legislatures with a relatively high proportion of women present. We conclude that because of their focus on multiple groups, black women occupy a unique place in representation, and that their choices are influenced by the institutional context in which they work.

The Political Determinants of Women’s Descriptive Representation in Cities

Why is the descriptive (or numerical) representation of women in policy-making positions higher in some cities than in others? Despite a strong body of work on the descriptive representation of women in state government, research on the presence of women in municipal government is limited in empirical scope and theoretical development. This study is different. First, the authors employ an original data set of 239 cities with populations of 100,000 or more to update and extend the empirical reach of scholars’ knowledge. Second, the authors develop and test hypotheses to explain how the urban political context affects women’s descriptive representation. The analysis reveals that the election of women as council members and mayors are interdependent phenomena. The authors also find that political characteristics of local communities are consequential for predicting the presence of women as municipal policy makers—just as consequential as electoral structures and other institutional features.