Black Mayors/White Mayors: Explaining Their Approval |
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| Authors: | Howell Susan E; Perry Huey L |
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| Institution: | Susan E. Howell is professor of political science at the University of New Orleans. Huey L. Perry is professor and Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Southern University—Baton Rouge. We are grateful to the National Science Foundation for funding this project, and to Frank P. Scioli Jr. and Marianne C. Stewart for their counsel in preparing the proposal. We would also like to thank Gary King, Sara Benesh, and Matthew Vile for methodological advice along the way, and Christine Day, Phillip J. Ardoin, and anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft. This project could not have been completed without the efforts of the graduate assistants with the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center, Matthew Vile, Heidi Unter, Manabu Saeki, and Monica Farris |
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| Abstract: | Performance models have been the norm in research on nationaland state executives, but oddly this model has rarely been extendedto the next level of executive office, mayors. The increasingnumber of African American mayors suggests that race may complicatethe performance model of approval at the local level. This researchtests a performance model of mayoral approval that takes racialfactors into account. The model is tested in two white citieswith white mayors and two black cities with black mayors. Performanceis measured by citizen evaluations of a variety of urban conditions,some of which citizens can observe firsthand. Findings indicatethat (1) performance matters in evaluating black and white mayors,and its influence does not seem to be related to the race ofthe mayor; (2) performance has more explanatory power over mayoralapproval than race, a pattern that holds for both black andwhite mayors; (3) race has more impact on the approval of blackmayors than on white mayors; and (4) blacks in black citieshave lower evaluations of local government performance in theircities than blacks in white cities. We conclude that the performancemodel is generalizable to the local level, even with the complicationsof race. |
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