The Participatory Implications of Racialized Policy Feedbacks

How do involuntary interactions with authoritarian institutions shape political engagement? Policy feedback literature suggests interactions with authoritarian policies undercut political participation. However, research in racial and ethnic politics offers reason to believe that these experiences may increase citizens' engagement. Drawing on group attachment and discrimination research, we argue that mobilization is contingent on individuals’ political psychological state. Relative to their counterparts, individuals with a politicized group identity will display higher odds of political engagement when exposed to authoritarian institutions. To evaluate our theory, we draw on the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Study to examine the experiences of Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans. For all subgroups, we find that for those with a politicized group identity, institutional contact is associated with higher odds of participation. This pattern holds across different types of institutions. Our research modifies the classic policy feedbacks framework, which neglects group-based narratives in the calculus of collective action.