Boundaries of Obligation in American Politics
Geographic, National, and Racial Communities

Based on analysis of eight national surveys, this book examines how people's definition of community shapes their views on governmental redistributive policies.

Cara J. Wong (Author)

9780521691840, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 March 2010

286 pages, 28 b/w illus. 11 tables
22.6 x 15 x 1.8 cm, 0.38 kg

“Boundaries of Obligation provides nothing less than a new way to think about American politics and the world beyond our borders. Anyone who has puzzled over a claim about who counts as a “true American,” or who hopes that Americans might care more about world hunger or global warming, will want to read this book. Wong makes it crystal clear that our sense of community can rise above the identifications of race, citizenship, and where we live. Most important, this book shows that these boundaries of obligation explain our political actions above and beyond our interests, prejudices, and ideologies. Wong proves that we need to ask where people draw the lines around their communities. All researchers interested in racial politics, ethnic conflict, political participation and philosophical ideas about community and obligation will want to read this exciting and timely new book.”
—Lynn Sanders, University of Virginia

This book shows how ordinary Americans imagine their communities and the extent to which their communities' boundaries determine who they believe should benefit from the government's resources via redistributive policies. By contributing extensive empirical analyses to a largely theoretical discussion, it highlights the subjective nature of communities while confronting the elusive task of pinning down 'pictures in people's heads'. A deeper understanding of people's definitions of their communities and how they affect feelings of duties and obligations provides a new lens through which to look at diverse societies and the potential for both civic solidarity and humanitarian aid. This book analyzes three different types of communities and more than eight national surveys. Wong finds that the decision to help only those within certain borders and ignore the needs of those outside rests, to a certain extent, on whether and how people translate their sense of community into obligations.

1. Community and special obligations
2. The boundaries of imagined communities
3. Community and geography
4. Restricting national boundaries
5. Blurring the color line
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Public opinion & polls [JPVK], Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB]