African American Power and Politics: The Political Context Variable (review)

350 Rhetoric & Public Affairs phenomenon. Scholars of social movements will surely benefit from understanding it better. Ira Chernus University of Colorado at Boulder African American Power and Politics: The Political Context Variable. By Hanes Walton Jr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997; pp. 475. $45.00 cloth; $21.50 paper. This book is a significant contribution to the African American/black politics literature . Hanes Walton Jr. is the author or co-author of 20 of the 23 chapters in this volume. Other contributors include William H. Boone, Congressman Donald Payne, Kenneth A. Jordan, Modibo M. Kadalie, Michael C. Dawson, Katherine Tate, Paula D. McClain and Steven C. Tauber. Walton and the other contributors examine a subject of great complexity—political context or the context variable as it relates to African Americans during the Reagan (1980-1988), Bush (1988-1992), and Clinton (1992-present) presidencies. The context in which the United States practiced politics changed considerably during the course of these administrations. This book contends that there is a national political context and at least four subnational contexts: state, county, local, and a combination of these three, known as regional context. Walton utilizes the political context variable as an analytical tool for evaluating and appraising the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton presidencies and their impact upon the African American community and its politics. Walton draws his definition of political context from Huckfeldt and Sprague's "Citizens, Contexts, and Politics" in Ada Finifter (ed.), Political Science: The State of the Discipline II: Political context as a variable offers the thesis that political behavior, at either the individual or group level, is not independent of the political environment (i.e., a particular time period and a particular place) in which it occurs (282). Another definition tells us that the political context variable "is any effect on individual behavior that arises due to social interaction within an environment" (289). This definition equates "social interaction" with the political context: "contextual effects as construct here are due to social interaction within particular environments and social contexts are created as a result of these interactions" (289). Walton's piece provides a strong focus on how the political context variable shapes African American political behavior in all aspects of the American political process, including decision making and public policy. William Boone launches this well-informed perspective from the realms of theory and practice, and aptly sets the tone for the analysis that follows. Walton provides an understanding for the meaning of the political context variable as it has Book Reviews 351 been described in the academic political science literature. He then moves on to discuss the meaning and definition of the variable within the African American community specifically, as well as the differences and similarities in these definitions. In this timely book, Walton develops an innovative theoretical framework which "moves beyond the definition, delineation, discussion, and description of the context variable at the micro and macro dimensions. He explores how the context as a variable impacting political behavior can be altered and transformed from one that is fairly racially tolerant, inclusive, and pluralistic, to one that is abrasively and aggressively intolerant, exclusive, and hierarchical" (xxi). The political context variable has been inadequately conceptualized to mirror how whites "threatened" by higher black concentrations have expressed their fears through the ballot (xxxiv), in which case, a reconceptualization of the political context variable is not only called for but also necessary. A critical question is not only whether a contextual effect exists, but also if it does, why? Walton maintains contextual analysis has been faulted for ignoring the intervening variables that more fully explain how the context affects individual behavior. He provides the reader with an array of testable propositions about the American political context and the African American political context variable. Perhaps more importantly, Walton offers directions for future investigations of this underexplored variable. Although race has been a dominant political cleavage in the United States for most of its history the exploration of the impact of context or environment on African American political behavior is the focus of this book. Walton asserts that political context is one of the systematic variables influential in the shaping of African American political behavior...