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The
individual or collection of individuals identified by some social signifier
-- whether it is ethnicity or race or gender, etc. -- may engage in political
activities because she may have higher educational attainment or a high
income that comes from a high status occupation, or he may be well-informed
as to current affairs and believes the government is constituted to serve
the needs of people like himself or ballots are provided in a language
that he may read and understand. But people do not simply take the initiative
to engage in politics, they are also drawn out, they are mobilized by
individuals and institutions interested in their participation and that
is what I would like to focus on.
By focusing on mobilization, one may accomplish two things: To bring back
politics into the study of Puerto Rican political participation and place
the onus on becoming involved in politics on political institutions which,
until recently, have ignored or taken for granted the participation of
Puerto Ricans in the United States.
After all, people participate in politics not because of who they are
but because of the political choices and incentives they are offered.
In this presentation I intend to show the effects of mobilization or lack
thereof of political participation by examining how the same group of
Puerto Ricans behaves as it moves from a polity that promotes its participation,
in this case Puerto Rico, to another one that, in relative terms, does
not, that is the United States.
I will also argue that those differential levels of participation in the
United States and in Puerto Rico, whether electoral or otherwise, are
in effect evidence of coping strategies Puerto Ricans have used when faced
with environments that have correspondingly been encouraging or discouraging
of their political involvement. Under circumstances that are favorable
to Puerto Rican participation, the rates of involvement are significantly
higher. Where institutional and structural barriers to involvement exist,
the politcal participation of Puerto Ricans decreases or manifests itself
in ways that run counter to their early political socialization.
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