Civic Engagement in Miami and Minneapolis-St. PaulTale of Two Cities: Civic Health in Miami and Minneapolis-St. PaulJanuary 24, 2011
Prior to the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the U. S. Bureau of Census collected information on a rather limited range of civic engagement indicators. Beginning in 2008, a number of new indicators were piloted in the Current Population Survey and, in 2009, several of those indicators were retained. Thus, we are able to report here on several aspects of civic engagement including registration and voting, non-electoral political participation, volunteering, community participation and charitable giving, attending to politics and public affairs, and the extent to which people connect to social networks that surround them. Specific indicators included in this report are as follows: REGISTRATION AND VOTING • Registered to vote in 2008 • Voted in the 2008 Presidential election NON-ELECTORAL POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • Took part in a march, rally, or demonstration • Attended a meeting where political issues were discussed • Bought or boycotted a product or service because of the company’s social or political values • Contacted or visited a public official • Donated to or worked for a party or candidate VOLUNTEERING, COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION, AND CHARITABLE GIVING • Volunteered • Worked with neighbors to fix a problem in the community • Attended a meeting in which there was a discussion of community affairs • Participated in at least one community group • Donated at least $25 to a charitable cause ATTENDING TO POLITICS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS • Discussed politics with family and friends • Extent to which news was followed through: - Television - Newspapers - Radio - Magazines - Other internet resources CONNECTING TO SOCIAL NETWORKS • Eating dinner with household members • Communicating with family and friends using the internet • Talking with neighbors • Exchanging favors with neighbors Results for Miami and Minneapolis-St. Paul as well as national results are shown in Figures 7 through 11. The Twin Cities are ahead of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach on virtually all measures of civic engagement, often by a large margin. Minneapolis-St. Paul residents, for example, contacted public officials at rates more than three times higher than did residents of Miami (Figure 8). They worked with neighbors on community issues, attended community meetings, and volunteered at rates that were more than double the engagement rates in Miami (Figure 9). On all measures of direct citizen involvement, the Twin Cities are well above the United States average, whereas Miami is well below. Voting and registration shows a somewhat different pattern (Figure 7). While South Florida citizens register and vote at rates that are lower than the Twin Cities, they reach the U. S. average in voter registration and, in 2008, they slightly exceeded the U.S. voter-turnout rate. This result is very likely indicative of Hispanic – particularly Cuban – engagement in the electoral process in South Florida. Solidly Republican, the Cuban vote has helped to elect a Cuban majority on the Miami city council, a significant number of Cuban representatives in the state legislature, Cuban members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and two Cuban U. S. Senators. Once again, while South Florida electoral participation levels remain below those of Minneapolis-St. Paul and other measures of civic engagement are quite low relative to both Minneapolis-St. Paul and the nation, Miami citizens are more engaged in elections than any other form of civic participation. Miami citizens also report discussing politics with friends and neighbors at rates that are higher than the United States average and slightly higher than Minneapolis-St. Paul (Figure 10). This result is undoubtedly related to the fact that these data were collected in November 2008 immediately following the Obama election. As an important swing state, Florida, in general, and South Florida, in particular, drew a great deal of campaign attention in both the primaries and the general election. Given the constant stream of media and candidates in the region and the focus of the Hispanic community on the electoral process, it is probably not surprising that people were talking about politics at rates that exceeded national and even Twin City rates. In the same context, Miami residents show relatively high rates of attention to television, radio, and magazine news sources. In addition to the heat of the 2008 presidential race, these results probably reflect the robust character of the Spanish-language press in Miami.Finally, we note that Twin Cities residents appear to have somewhat stronger social networks than do residents of Miami (Figure 11). More of them have meals with other members of their households, use the Internet to connect with family and friends, and talk to neighbors than is true for Miami. The single exception is exchanging favors with neighbors, which Miami residents are slightly more likely to do, compared to Minneapolis–St. Paul residents. Earlier in this report, we noted that the concentration of Hispanics in the city of Miami together with non-Hispanic white abandonment of Miami and the outlying county has produced significant patterns of demographic variation across the communities that comprise the Miami metropolitan area. The civic consequences of that variation are demonstrated in Table 1, where we show results for each of the civic engagement measures for Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County, respectively. With the exception of voting and discussing politics, the urban core of the Miami metro area shows rates of civic engagement that are two to four times lower than the outlying counties. Once again, reflecting the strong electoral focus of the Cuban community, registration and voting rates and rates of discussing politics in Miami-Dade County are the highest in the metro area. Reinforcing the earlier observation about the robustness of the Spanish-language media in Miami, we note the high levels of attention to radio and to news magazines in Miami-Dade compared to other regions of the metro area. We hasten to underscore the fact that even the most engaged communities within the Miami metropolitan region remain far below the engagement rates found in Minneapolis-St. Paul. But the point is that the combination of low education, high poverty, a large non-citizen population, and perhaps, civic values that focus on the electoral process to the exclusion of other avenues of engagement all come together at Miami’s urban core to produce significantly lower levels of civic engagement. As we shall note below, additional evidence suggests that the relative strengths and weaknesses of community institutions associated with civic engagement may also contribute to the low levels of engagement in Miami’s urban center. If you like this kind of content, sign up for an NCoC.net account and we'll customize your homepage recommendations based on your interests..
|
Recently Popular Tags
Baby Boomers
Business
Charitable Donations
Citizenship
Civic Engagement
Civic Health
Civic Learning
Deliberative Democracy
eCitizenship
Economy
Education
Elections
Expressing Political Views
Family & Friends
Gender
Generations
GenX
Government
Military
Millennials
Participating in Politics
Philanthropy
Policy
Political Involvement
Politics
Public Policy
Race
Religion
Service
Service-Learning
Social Entrepreneurship
Staying Informed
Trust
Understanding Politics & Government
Volunteering
Voting
|
||
| 202.955.6183 | conference@ncoc.net 1201 15th Street NW • Suite 420 • Washington, DC 20005 Copyright © 2000-2013 The National Conference on Citizenship. All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy | Glossary of Terms |
Follow Us on:    |
||
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}