The Practice of Voting: Immigrant Turnout, the Persistence of Origin Effects, and the Nature, Formation and Transmission of Political Habit by Deanna L. Pikkov A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology Graduate Department of Sociology University of Toronto John Myles, Supervisor Robert Andersen, Committee Member Shyon Baumann, Committee Member Richard Johnston, External Appraiser Monica Boyd, Internal Appraiser © Copyright by Deanna Pikkov (2011) Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-78085-5 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-78085-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ii Abstract The Practice of Voting: Immigrant Turnout, the Persistence of Origin Effects, and the Nature, Formation and Transmission of Political Habit PhD Sociology 2011 Deanna L. Pikkov Department of Sociology University of Toronto This dissertation is a multi-layered examination of the practice of voting, with a focus on the electoral turnout of immigrants. Chapter Two’s statistical analyses show that pre-migration cultural familiarity with democracy, formalized as levels of democratization in source countries, strongly shapes the likelihood of post-migration voting among Canadian immigrants. These origin effects, comparable in size to the best predictors of turnout that we have, exert a persistent influence – affecting turnout not only among the foreign-born, but also among the native-born second generation. Multilevel models demonstrate that the shifting source country composition of immigrant period-of-arrival cohorts provides an alternate explanation for what have previously been identified as generational, racial, and length of residence or ‘exposure’ effects among immigrant voters. This provides further evidence that voting is in most cases habitual, and raises questions about the acquisition, transmission, and reproduction of a voting practice. Chapter Three’s narratives of political development, gathered through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, confirm the importance of parental influence, and suggest that the ‘stickiness’ of practical capacities like voting may be the result of powerful processes of observational social learning. Providing a new twist on dominant models of political socialization, observation of parental voting appears to be the pivotal event in a path-dependent process of political learning, with acquisition of values and beliefs playing a supporting, rather than a leading role. Chapter iii Four reviews recent efforts among sociologists to amend action theory to make more room for habit, and these efforts are discussed in reference to contemporary research on turnout. I argue that these theoretical revisions still retain too sharp a focus on the cognitive aspects of practice. There is a lack of appreciation for the ways that action itself – our own previous actions and the actions of those close to us – can directly structure outcomes. Evidence from cognitive neuroscience is used to more precisely delineate habitual behaviour and thought. Where the intergenerational transmission of voting behaviour is concerned, culture is often coded directly into embodied practice. Efforts to encourage electoral participation should be built on a better understanding of voting’s substantial behavioural aspects. iv Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to thank those who helped make this thesis possible. First and foremost, I am indebted to my supervisor John Myles, whose guidance, high standards, warm humanity and sense of humour were all much appreciated over the years of our relationship. It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with him. I also want to extend sincere thanks to my committee members Robert Andersen and Shyon Baumann for their advice and support, and to Richard Johnston for his close and sympathetic reading of the thesis. The list of people who showed interest in my ideas and efforts and who have read and critiqued my work – or helped in other ways during the course of my graduate career - is by now immense. Although they are too many to name, I want to gratefully acknowledge each one, and to thank them for forming the intellectual community that nurtured me, and this project, through all its stages. I must single out Monica Boyd and Joe Carens, for the aid and encouragement they provided at a critical time, when I was first considering graduate studies. For material support, I am thankful for the funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program, the University of Toronto’s Department of Sociology, and the University’s School of Graduate Studies. I also want to thank my interview respondents, who so generously shared their time, thoughts, and histories with me. On a more personal note, I want to thank Norah MacKendrick, Jason Turowetz, Djordje Stefanovic and most especially Mai Phan, for being buddies in good times and bad. Your help and support at every level was crucial, and I am forever grateful. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my mother, Lia Pikkov, for her endless faith in me and in my abilities. I only wish that my father, Lembit Pikkov, were still here. His own dreams of higher education ended in 1946, after six months of study in economics at the University of Bonn, when his only pair of dress pants (shared with a room-mate) fell apart on the way to morning lectures. Decent clothing was at that time a necessity for university attendance, but hard to come by for a penniless 22 year old far from home. To John, Sam, and Talvi, all my love. v Table of Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents............................................................................................................................ v Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Format of the Dissertation........................................................................................................... 1 Summary of Findings .................................................................................................................. 1 Immigrant electoral turnout (Chapter 2).................................................................................. 1 Political Socialization (Chapter 3)........................................................................................... 3 Theories of Action, Culture & Practice (Chapter 4)................................................................ 5 Contributions to Scholarship....................................................................................................... 7 Electoral Behaviour and the Study of Turnout........................................................................ 8 Immigration and Integration Research .................................................................................. 10 Political behaviour................................................................................................................. 12 Political socialization............................................................................................................. 15 Action Theory and the Influence of Culture.......................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 - Electoral Turnout of Immigrants in Canada: Effects of Origin, Length of Residence, and Perceived Discrimination ......................................................................................................