Illusions of power: Working poor quiescence during the Reagan and Bush years.

Abstract

Faced with economic struggles, the 1980s working poor had a wide range of political activities that they could have tried. This range of activities, all legitimate forms of political participation, includes such things as conventional strategies like voting and unconventional strategies like marching and protesting. In Illusions of Power, I seek to understand why, given this range of activities, the list of activities they actually chose to engage is limited with regard to its range and its fruitfulness. Among those working poor who did act, many relied only on conventional strategies like voting and bypassed less conventional, collective activities, like marching and protesting. By exploring the meaning of political participation to the working poor, I discovered that their ideology has a great deal to do with how they perceive the political world and their role in that world. Those respondents who embrace the American dream give priority to conventional, individual oriented forms, of political action. Those who have an ideology that is inconsistent with the American dream and based more on their experiences of economic struggle, tend to understand their strategy choices in broad terms that include both conventional and unconventional forms of participation. In addition, those who have never engaged in a mixed strategy (taking both conventional and unconventional action) or who do not act at all politically make clear that the perceived risks and dangers associated with collective action limit their perception of when and how they can act in the political arena in this manner. These findings, I suggest have important implications for those interested in mobilizing the working poor to try either collective action or a mixed strategy. They also have important implications for understanding why there is not strong support among a class oriented third party.