Is there an Empowerment Life Cycle?

The authors explore the relationship between long-term black empowerment and racial turnout rates in Atlanta (Georgia), Cleveland (Ohio), and Los Angeles (California). Symbolic politics, intergroup competition, and political alienation theories are used to explain interracial differences in political participation in mayoral elections. Strong and durable symbolic effects are evident in all three cases. Black turnout equals or exceeds white turnout during and, in the case of Cleveland, after the period of black empowerment. In Los Angeles, however, the symbolic benefits of black empowerment eventually wane as a result of increasing political alienation among black voters.