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Form/Huber Colloquium: Professor Rory McVeigh

October 10, 2014
All Day
248 Townshend Hall

Event Host: Department of Sociology


Rory McVeigh, professor, sociology, Notre Dame University, presents: "Political Polarization as a Social Movement Outcome: 1960s Klan Activism and its Enduring Impact on Political Realignment in Southern Counties, 1960-2000”.

Radical social movements can exacerbate tensions in local settings while drawing attention to ways in which movement goals align with political party agendas. Short term movement influence on voting outcomes can endure when orientations toward the movement disrupt social ties, embedding individuals within new discussion networks that reinforce new partisan loyalties. To demonstrate this dynamic, we employ longitudinal data to show that increases in Republican voting, across several different time intervals, were most pronounced in southern counties where the Ku Klux Klan had been active in the 1960s. In an individual-level analysis of voting intent, we also show that even decades after the Klan declined, racial attitudes map onto party voting among southern voters, but only in counties where the Klan had been active.

For more information, visit the Department of Sociology website.

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