Latino Population and Political Power in the United States and its Underlying Causes
According to the 2020 U.S.census data,Hispanics/Latinos have surpassed blacks to become the largest minority in the United States in recent years due to their high population growth rate.This change in ethnic structure is bound to have a more profound impact on the society,culture and politics of the United States.From the perspective of national demography and international politics,it is of great theoretical and empirical value to analyze the structural changes of Hispanic/Latino population and their political influence based on the U.S.census data and presidential election poll data.The results show that Hispanic population has grown steadily over the past 40 years and will continue to grow at a high rate in the future,becoming the primary driver of population and minority growth in the United States.However,there is a serious mismatch between Latino population and political power in the United States,which is mainly manifested in two levels of political participation and political stance.On the one hand,due to the population structure and socio-economic characteristics,Hispanics have insufficient qualifications and low willingness to partici-pate in electoral politics and concentrated in certain electoral districts.Therefore,the Latno voter power has not kept pace with population size,severely affecting its political expression as a minority.On the other hand,Hispanics have many sub-ethnic groups,whose party positions are different or even opposite.Moreover,there are distinct intergenera-tional differences within the group,resulting in blurred ethnic identities and political orientations.The failure to devel-op a sense of belonging and political unity similar to that of other ethnic minorities resulted in further fragmentation of the political voice.Overall,from the two aspects of political participation and stance,the influence and its direction of Latinos is still in flux and the change of the role of Latinos in election politics is the result of the superposition of demo-graphic factors and political behaviors.To explore the underlying causes of the mismatch between Latino population and political power reflects the important research value of national demography.
Ethnic Structure of the United StatesHispanicLatinoElectoral Politics
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
