Politically Correct Language:

1
Politically Correct Language

• A Study of Governmental Efficacy among Spanish
  Speaking Latinos

Nikolai Papa McNair Scholars Program University
of California, Davis Faculty Mentor Professor
Robert Huckfeldt Department of Political Science
2
Introduction

• Rapid Latino population growth.
• With changes in demography come changes in
  political participation.
• The role of language in political participation.
• 42.8 of Latinos in California speaking another
  language report speaking English less than very
  well (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).

3
Background Information

• Previous research
• Shows that traditional measures of participation
  occur at lower rates for Latinos than for
  Anglo-Whites and African-Americans.
• (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, 1995)
• Focused on Latino likelihood of participation.
• (Leal et al, 2005)
• Has taken English proficiency into account with
  regards to determining the effectiveness of
  surveys.
• (Hill and Moreno, 2001)

4
Purpose of the Study

• This research
• Uses correspondence to determine responsiveness
  to participation, and conditions within a
  Congressional district that best facilitate
  participation by Spanish speaking Latinos.
• Acknowledges that letter writing is a small
  percentage of political participation.
• Will first measure response times of letters, and
  then use electoral and demographic data from
  districts as explanatory variables.

5
Methods

• Letters sent to California U.S. Representatives.
• 106 letters total. Two separate questions NAFTA
  and immigration policy.
• Varying response times to letters written in
  Spanish.
• Incumbent partisanship, vote margin of last
  election, number of Latinos in district, and
  length of office holding are examined.

Californias Congressional Districts
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Analysis

• Explanatory data
• Party
• Latino Population
• Years in office
• Margin of Victory

• Stata statistical software used for analysis.
• Mean response time to English letters serves as
  baseline.
• Regression methods used to determine positive or
  negative effects of data.

7
Preliminary Findings

• Responses so far support hypothesis that Spanish
  letters generate longer response times.
• Too few responses at this point to have any
  explanatory power.
• Only basic statistical methods have been applied.

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Discussion

• This study was limited to California, but other
  states with similar demographic trends may show
  similar results.
• Because of the areas of Latino concentration,
  some states may never study this.

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Next Steps

• Tabulation of remaining responses and conclusion
  of this study.
• Determining if the result is widespread.
• Broadening level of analysis to encompass more
  competitive Congressional districts.

10
Acknowledgements

• The UC Davis McNair Scholars Program
• Professor Robert Huckfeldt
• Department of Political Science
• Christina Bernadac, Graduate student
• Department of Spanish

11
Politically Correct Language

• A Study of Governmental Efficacy among Spanish
  Speaking Latinos

Nikolai Papa McNair Scholars Program University
of California, Davis Faculty Mentor Professor
Robert Huckfeldt Department of Political Science