Asian and Latino American Political Conceptualization: A Dual-Concept Model

Abstract

A central challenge for citizens is to understand how their political system works. The classic “Levels of Conceptualization” measure proposed in The American Voter provided an answer for White Americans in the 1950s, but has limited relevance today for citizens of non-European ancestry. Expanding on the work of Campbell et al., this paper develops a measure of Political Conceptualization that combines views about parties and candidates with views on personal identity and ethnic fairness. The measure is based on open-ended responses in a survey of Asian Americans and Latinos. Results show how, across these quite different domains of politics, citizens vary in their Political Conceptualizations from narrow and concrete to broad and abstract. Results highlight the challenge for political organizers in building coalitions among citizens who vary in their understanding of how politics works.