Identities and Interests : Race, Ethnicity, and Affinity Voting

The electoral behaviour of racialized voters and politicians has captured little attention outside the United States. Identities and Interests offers a new perspective on the role of racial and ethnic identities in Canadian elections. Combining survey data experiments with candidate and census data, Randy Besco demonstrates that self-identification matters far more than self-interest, ideology, or policy. The largest minority groups – Chinese and South Asian Canadians – tend to support candidates of their own ethnicity. Yet inter-minority affinity voting also reveals the potential for "rainbow coalitions" and how minorities themselves think in terms of a white/non-white divide. Besco distinguishes pure in-group bias from the positive effects stemming from affinity voting and calls for a more nuanced evaluation of the role of identity in politics. Overall, his findings have major implications for social movements, issue opinions, fundraising, and political leadership races. Identities and Interests gets to the heart of our understanding of democracy and citizenship.