Black Employment in Municipal Jobs: The Impact of Black Political Power

An analysis of affirmative action data regarding levels of black employment in the civil service of forty-three U.S. cities indicates that observed variations are mainly a function of the size of the black population and the presence of a black mayor. By interpreting the size of the black population as an indicator of potential bloc voting power and by making explicit the links between the mayor's office and the personnel system, we may conclude that civil service hiring represents one tangible benefit of black political po wer. Other possible hypotheses explaining variations in levels of black employment are less satisfactory, including the argument that minority employment is mainly a function of the expansion or contraction of the public sector. The research suggests that to some degree a politics of ethnicity which involves the distribution of divisible economic goods to a particular group as a consequence of that group's political power is still a possibility in American cities.