Latinos and the Political System
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Notre Dame Press
Published:31st Oct '88
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Over the past decade Latinos in this country have become a large, significant, and growing political constituency. The 28 essays in this anthology explore the significance of this growth in both local and national politics, assessing the degree to which its potential power is being actualized and discussing its impact on policy formation. Attention is given for the first time to the political status of all three major Latino groups in the United States—Mexican-American, Cuban, and Puerto Rican.
F. Chris Garcia has selected the most timely essays available and provides an introduction to the volume, as well as introductions to each group of articles. The first essays examine the environmental setting, especially the history and demography, in which Latino politics operates. Political input activities employed in the 1980s is then explored, focusing on electoral means including the expression of needs through interest-group organizations. How the system responds is seen next through Latino representation in the legislatures and bureaucracies of government. Also treated is the formulation and promulgation of public policy in education, employment, and public services. The concluding essay stress styles and strategies for future Latino political involvement.
Together the selections from Latinos and the Political System comprise a comprehensive and penetrating picture of the Latino political situation and its place within the United States political system. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars in Latino studies courses and ethnic studies courses, as well as all those interested in ethnic/race relations and American politics.
"Latinos and the Political System brings together 28 essays on Latino efforts to win both regional and national political representation in the United States. The essays explore the larger U.S. society's discrimination against Latinos and the Latino community's resistance to assimilation into U.S. culture, as well as organizations that are successfully overcoming obstacles and trying to unite Hispanics into a politically powerful group with a voice in the U.S. government and its policies." —Mexico Journal
"[T]his admirable collection will benefit everyone concerned with Latino issues or, indeed, with public policy issues in general." —Southwestern Historical Quarterly
“This is the most comprehensive collection of essays available on the political and socioeconomic achievements of Latinos and challenges facing them. The book continues Garcia's several anthologies of articles on the cultural, political, and socioeconomic development and condition of Latinos in the US. He uses an Eastonian 'systems' framework to organize this collection of articles, some previously published, others originally published here. [This collection] include[s] studies on Latinos and education, and on interethnic and race relations; and it adds articles on the role of Latino women in US politics. Garcia's introduction and commentaries preceding each of the five major sections of the work provide a series of the engaging, synthesizing, and seasoned observations that readers have come to associate and identify with him. This is an indispensable source for students and scholars of Latino politics. There is no other work like it on the market." —Choice
“A fine guide to how Latinos are influencing the nation.” —Bookwatch
ISBN: 9780268012861
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
512 pages