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The Ties that Bind: Assessing the Effects of Political and Racial Church Homogeneity on Asian American Political Participation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2020

Nathan K. Chan Open the ORCID record for Nathan K. Chan [Opens in a new window]  and
Davin L. Phoenix
Nathan K. Chan*
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Davin L. Phoenix
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Nathan K. Chan, Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine, CA. E-mail: nkchan@uci.edu
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Abstract

Research consistently emphasizes the importance of religious institutions for influencing political action among Asian Americans. The social capital literature offers two theoretical explanations for why churches increase political activity: bridging capital between different groups and bonding capital among similar groups. The latter argues that individuals who attend racially homogeneous churches are more participatory. This paper expands on these accounts by examining another aspect of bonding. That is, how does similarity in political views among church members affect Asian Americans' political participation? Results from the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey show that Asian Americans who attend politically homogeneous churches are more likely to vote and participate in conventional activities. The effects of racial homogeneity are limited once taking political homogeneity into consideration. These findings provide evidence that political homophily within religious organizations may facilitate the bonding of social capital between racial/ethnic minorities, and this homophily is indeed salient to democratic participation.

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 639 - 670
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2020

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Footnotes

*

The authors thank Louis DeSipio, Jane Junn, Tanika Raychaudhuri, Pooya Safarzadeh, Michael Tesler, and Janelle Wong, as well as the anonymous reviewers for reading previous drafts and providing valuable comments. The authors also thank The Center for the Study of Democracy at The University of California, Irvine and The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (ID#2018254511) for their financial support.

References

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