Political Activity and Geographic Area.

¶ … political activity and geographic area. Political activity involves more than simply participation in the voting process. It also includes whether people affiliate with political parties, the level of participation in the party process, and political contributions as a percentage of disposable income. This topic is of interest because it would allow the researcher to see if low involvement in other parts of the political process necessarily correlates with a low voter turnout.

The topic would also allow the researcher to determine if the other demographics associated with certain geographic areas, such as race or socioeconomic status, reveal bigger trends in political participation. Furthermore, the topic would allow politicians and other community leaders to target areas with low political involvement to see if there is a way to increase involvement. For example, if low political involvement is correlated with high-crime areas, it may be because those areas have a high concentration of convicted felons, who are unable to vote and therefore not likely to be involved in the political process. Finally, determining political involvement according to geographic area would also reveal the correlation between the level of political involvement in a community and the allocation of monetary and other resources to that area.

The main source of information would be actual residents in the different geographic areas. Another source of information would be to speak with the political party leaders for Cook County to ascertain what they believe are the areas of high and low political participation in the city. Furthermore, I would speak with political science professors at universities in Chicago that specialize in comparative politics, race relations, political psychology, and public opinion.

Finally, I would utilize the resources from the City of Chicago's official website and contact the aldermen of different wards to determine: racial composition of wards, socioeconomic status of wards, financial resources allocated to the different wards, and crime statistics by wards. Using the existing information, those variables could be correlated with participation in the political process.

The first step in the fieldwork process is to create the survey. The survey would ask individuals to answer simple questions to gauge their level of political participation: (1) how many elections have you voted in since 1995; (2) how many political demonstrations have you demonstrated in since 1995; (3) are you affiliated with a political party; (4) do you volunteer in a political party or other political organization; (5) what percentage of your disposable income do you contribute to political parties or groups per year? The next step is to get a list of households in each ward, and select 1% of households in each ward. Step three is for the researcher to personally interview (or have people personally review), either by going door to door or by telephone, the adult members of each household, to avoid the possibility that those who are not involved in the political process would not return the survey.

20 Best Sources

1. Dr. John Brehm. Political science professor at the University of Chicago.

Because Dr. Brehm studies both political psychology and comparative politics, his insights into whether political activity is determined by geographic area could be helpful.

2. Dr. Cathy Cohen. Political science professor at the University of Chicago. Because Dr. Cohen studies African-American politics, social movements, and marginal groups, she should be able to provide valuable insight into what it takes to get marginal groups politically involved.

3. Dr. Reuel Rogers. Political science professor at Northwestern University. Dr. Rogers studies race in politics, which is one of the factors that I hypothesize will effect political involvement.

4. Dr. Michael Hanchard. Political science professor at Northwestern University. Dr. Hanchard may be the most important contact in academia for any aspects of the study linked to race because Dr. Hanchard has done extensive work in both comparative politics and transnational politics. Furthermore, Dr. Hanchard may be able to provide insight into research methodology because he has done research on black political activists in various locales.

5. Dr. Wesley Skogan. Political science professor at Northwestern University. Dr. Skogan concentrates on citizens as consumers and creators of law, therefore he may have valuable insight on political involvement.

6. Dr. Dennis Chong. Political science professor at Northwestern University. Dr. Chong wrote Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society, in which he examined the interrelationship between how people's individual choices effect their social and economic realms. Because choice of residence may be one of the most basic social choices, Dr. Chong may be able to provide help and guidance for the field research.

7. Cook County Republican Party.. By contacting the Cook County Republican Party, I could find out the wards that are most active in party politics.

8. Cook County Democratic Party. http://www.cookcountydems.com/ward.htm

Cook County democratic party website, with contact information for party leaders by ward. By contacting individual ward leaders, I could get volunteer information for the Democratic Party by ward. http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/home.do

Official website of the city of Chicago. It has information regarding communities and neighborhoods. Contains a ward and alderman list, with contact information for the aldermen for each ward.

10. http://www.choosechicago.com/default.html. Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau. Provides contact information, from which I find out which areas of Chicago are most likely to be used for local political conventions. http://about.chicagotribune.com/community/volunteerism.htm. The volunteerism site for the Chicago Tribune, I can ascertain local activist groups and talk to their leaders about volunteerism and donations.

12. www.suntimes.com/index/elect.html -- the political section of the Chicago Sun-Times, which gives updated information about current local political issues.

A www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld.The political section of the Chicago Sun-Times, which gives updated information about current national political issues. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/.A really helpful website that gives up-to-date information on political issues. It provides links to a number of political blogs that can provide insight into levels of political activity.