Identifier
etd-04262011-131328
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Political Science
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The 2008 Presidential Election brought into office the first African-American president in U.S. history. This paper analyzes variations in White support for Barack Obama based on a number of county-level contextual factors, which are hypothesized to influence aggregate White voter support for the Democratic candidate. Based on the well-known racial threat theory, this paper will explore how racial composition and income inequality effect White support for Barack Obama. Another key explanatory variable, violence, is thought to influence White voter support because of the preconceptions some of these voters hold about African-Americans. Violence helps shape the stereotypes White voters hold, and these stereotypes are not left behind when entering the voting booth. If violence helps explain variation in county-level White support for Barack Obama, this paper offers preliminary evidence that stereotypes about violence may have a significant influence on voting and African-American candidate strategies may not have the sway necessary to overcome some of these barriers in the electoral arena.
Date
2011
Document Availability at the Time of Submission
Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.
Recommended Citation
Fowler, Matthew, "Threat, violence, and voters: race and context in the 2008 presidential election" (2011). LSU Master's Theses. 2806.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/2806
Committee Chair
Sullivan, Jas
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_theses.2806