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Dimensions of the Social Environment: Political

Overview

Community political participation have been found to be associated with population health status. Davey Smith and Dorling (1996), showed that in England and Wales, mortality rates in electoral constituencies were negatively correlated with Conservative voting patterns and positively correlated with Labour voting. Area deprivation was also negatively associated with Conservative voting but positively associated with Labour voting. The authors concluded that in areas with better material circumstances and more optimal health, voters were more likely to support leadership that favors reducing public assistance programs. In the United States, Blakely and colleagues (2001) studied disparities among states in voting across socioeconomic status groups. Individuals living in states with the highest voting inequality were shown to have increased odds of fair or poor self–rated health relative to those in other states. They reasoned that disproportionate political participation by the more economically well off skews subsequent policymaking towards their interests, a conclusion supported in the political science literature (Hill and Leighley 1992).

More broadly, political participation has been of recent interest as an indicator of embeddedness in the institutions of civil society. It is considered to be a reflection of social capital within a community (Kawachi 1999). Social capital, measured in several different ways, has been associated with positive health outcomes (Subramanian and Kawachi and Kennedy 2001; Kawachi and Kennedy and Glass 1999a; Kawachi et al. 1997) (see the Psychosocial Dimension, page 51, for further discussion of the social capital concept).

Within the political contextual dimension, we include aspects of political participation such as voting and political party membership, as well as donations to parties and candidates, which are known to influence public policy (Ferguson 1995). Likewise the degree to which elected officials are representative of their areas in terms of gender and race/ethnicity may be an important factor in their responsiveness to constituents’ needs (Whitby 1997; Bratton and Haynie 1999). The percent of the local budget devoted to public health investments can be considered an indication of the priority placed on health by the community as well as a measure of available fiscal resources. We also include the number and influence of various politically active community groups.

This table describes the components and indicators of the political dimension. Three political components are identified:

Within each component, several indicators are identified, and for each indicator at least one data set is listed.

One or more of the following files are available in Portable Document Format (PDF). Learn more about PDFs.

Components and Indicators

Data Sources and Notes

1. Civic Participation: Voting

Voting and registration rates: Votes cast for president, by party

USA Counties
Data available on CD–ROM; online data for single counties downloadable as text or comma–separated–value file.

Voting and registration rates: Percent of persons registered to vote and voting by race/ethnicity

Census Bureau (PDF 455K)
State data in PDF format.

Ease of registration: Voter registration by mail allowed; registration deadline prior to election

Moving and Relocation Sourcebook and Directory (http://www.omnigraphics.com)
Hardcover book available for purchase.

Racial/ethnic representativeness of registered voters

See voting and registration rates above.

Civic Participation: Census participation

Census response rates

Census Bureau

Civic Participation: Political party membership

Political party membership

See voting and registration rates above.

Civic Participation: Donations to parties and candidates

Donations to Republican and Democratic candidates, parties, and political action committees

Center for Responsive Politics*
Contributions for selected metropolitan areas, zip codes, and states.

2. Political Structure: Gender/racial/ethnic representation in elected office

Women in governing body

Carpenter, A. 1996. Facts About the Cities. New York: HW Wilson.

Elected officials in local governments by sex, race, and state

Census of Governments
From this Web site page, select Census of Governments for 1992; select Vol. 1, No. 2, Popularly Elected Officials. Available in PDF format.

Percent of women in statewide elective office

Center for American Women and Politics*

Blacks in elected office

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies DataBank*

Political Structure: Percent of local budget for public health investments

Expenditures for health and welfare

Census of Governments
From this Web site page, select year of interest; select Vol. 4, No. 3, Finances of County Governments, or No. 4, Finances of Municipal and Township Governments. Downloadable spreadsheet or comma–separated–value files available.

3. Power Groups: Community organizations

Number and size of organizations: religious, political, civic and social, social advocacy, human rights, environmental and wildlife, business, labor, grant making and giving

County Business Patterns
From this Web site page, select County, State, U.S., ZIP or MSA Database on a NAICS Basis. Select area of interest; in Number of Establishments table select detail for Industry Code 81, Other Services. Data downloadable as text or comma–separated–value tables; CD–ROM also available.

Power Groups: Unions

Unions

See Employment Dimension, Workforce Characteristics

*Links to non–Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at this link.