IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v48y1986i2p147-155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The politics of race in higher education: Governing boards and constituents

Author

Listed:
  • G. Sav

Abstract

Recent theoretical and empirical contributions suggest that patterns of employment discrimination in the public sector can be interpreted as a consequence of political and structural factors in viewing the government as a vote-maximizing entity. According to the analysis presented in this paper, extensions of the discrimating vote-maximizing hypothesis to the higher education industry are also useful in explaining interstate differences in the relative ability of blacks to capture a more equitable share of publicly produced education. The basic empirical finding is that blacks' relative access to and success in public higher education, as measured by relative black enrollments and conferred degrees, is significantly improved by increased black political participation and representation in elected offices. Furthermore, the analysis implies that the organizational structure of higher education also matters. Governing boards enjoying longer terms of office appear to have a negative effect on black equality in public higher education. Although the evidence on this point was weak, further tests would be required before it could be completely dismissed. Finally, the empirical results indicate that the recent structural trend toward fewer governing boards and greater concentration of board power have the likely effect of decreasing blacks' access to and success in higher education. Overall, these findings lend additional support to the present extensions of the vote-maximizing hypothesis in explaining patterns of discrimination in the public sector. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1986

Suggested Citation

  • G. Sav, 1986. "The politics of race in higher education: Governing boards and constituents," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 147-155, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:48:y:1986:i:2:p:147-155
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00179728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00179728
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00179728?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Toma, Eugenia Froedge, 1983. "Institutional Structures, Regulation, and Producer Gains in the Education Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(1), pages 103-116, April.
    2. Thomas Borcherding, 1977. "An economic approach to school integration: Public choice with tie-ins," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 53-77, September.
    3. Ryan Amacher & William Boyes, 1978. "Cycles in senatorial voting behavior: implications for the optimal frequency of elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 5-13, January.
    4. Blakemore, Arthur E & Low, Stuart A, 1983. "Scholarship Policy and Race-Sex Differences in the Demand for Higher Education," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(4), pages 504-519, October.
    5. Huey Perry, 1983. "The impact of black political participation on public sector employment and representation on municipal boards and commissions," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 203-217, December.
    6. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    7. Stigler, George J, 1970. "Director's Law of Public Income Redistribution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, April.
    8. Charles Knoeber, 1982. "Improving the behavior of public officials: Changing the method of compensation and changing officials," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 21-33, March.
    9. Robert Barro, 1973. "The control of politicians: An economic model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 19-42, March.
    10. Borjas, George J, 1982. "The Politics of Employment Discrimination in the Federal Bureaucracy," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 271-299, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. G. Sav, 1987. "Institutional structure, finance, and race in higher education: Public-private sectoral differences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 257-264, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. G. Sav, 1987. "Institutional structure, finance, and race in higher education: Public-private sectoral differences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 257-264, October.
    2. Zoltán Fazekas & Martin Ejnar Hansen, 2022. "Incentives for non-participation: absence in the United Kingdom House of Commons, 1997–2015," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 51-73, April.
    3. John Lott & W. Reed, 1989. "Shirking and sorting in a political market with finite-lived politicians," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 75-96, April.
    4. Emilio Ocampo, 2019. "The Economic Analysis of Populism. A Selective Review of the Literature," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 694, Universidad del CEMA.
    5. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 2002. "Political economics and public finance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1549-1659, Elsevier.
    6. Thomas Braendle & Alois Stutzer, 2017. "Voters and Representatives: How Should Representatives Be Selected?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2017-05, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    7. Mattozzi, Andrea & Snowberg, Erik, 2018. "The right type of legislator: A theory of taxation and representation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 54-65.
    8. Micael Castanheira & Gaëtan Nicodème & Paola Profeta, 2012. "On the political economics of tax reforms: survey and empirical assessment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(4), pages 598-624, August.
    9. Gertrud Fremling & John Lott, 1988. "Televising legislatures: Some thoughts on whether politicians are search goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 73-78, July.
    10. César Martinelli & John Duggan, 2014. "The Political Economy of Dynamic Elections: A Survey and Some New Results," Working Papers 1403, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    11. Vergne, Clémence, 2009. "Democracy, elections and allocation of public expenditures in developing countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 63-77, March.
    12. Yasushi Asako, 2010. "Partially Binding Platforms: Political Promises as a Partial Commitment Device," IMES Discussion Paper Series 10-E-01, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    13. Henrik Jordahl, 2006. "An economic analysis of voting in Sweden," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 251-265, June.
    14. Felix J. Bierbrauer & Pierre C. Boyer, 2016. "Efficiency, Welfare, and Political Competition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 461-518.
    15. Braendle, Thomas, 2013. "Do Institutions Affect Citizens' Selection into Politics?," Working papers 2013/04, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    16. Michael Davis & Philip Porter, 1989. "A test for pure or apparent ideology in congressional voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 101-111, February.
    17. Scharfenkamp, Katrin, 2018. "The effects of bridging business and politics – A survival analysis of German Federal ministers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 433-454.
    18. Jonathon M. Clegg, 2016. "Perception vs Reality: How Does The British Electorate Evaluate Economic Performance of Incumbent Governments In The Post War Period?," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _143, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. PETER van WIJCK & WIL ARTS, 1991. "The Dynamics of Income Inequality in a Representative Democracy," Rationality and Society, , vol. 3(3), pages 317-342, July.
    20. Laurent Bouton & Paola Conconi & Francisco Pino & Maurizio Zanardi, 2021. "The Tyranny of the Single-Minded: Guns, Environment, and Abortion," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(1), pages 48-59, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:48:y:1986:i:2:p:147-155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.