TY - JOUR TI - Labor market institutions and political engagement in the U.S. DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-5a2s-k778 PY - 2019 AB - How do lower-income individuals become involved in politics? The answer to this question—one that is at the heart of the current study and invokes core questions of political participation and inequality—is that labor unions are an important part of the answer. This study expands on the role of labor unions as foundational institutions upon which lower-income individuals are drawn into politics, have opportunities to engage with their political system, and level the participatory playing field in American politics. In this study, I locate labor unions as central institutions that are distinct from other groups and argue that they serve as a vital institutional source of political engagement for individuals across the income distribution, but are most significant for lower-income individuals. Drawing on quantitative analysis of multiple surveys, I find unions are associated with higher levels of non-procedural forms of political engagement—such as political knowledge, interest, and political discussion—for lower-income individuals, but in terms of procedural acts such as voting, unions are associated with higher levels of political activity for individuals across the income distribution. The findings in this study indicate that if the decline of labor unions in the U.S. persists, the negative political consequences may be widespread, but are likely to be most acute for lower-income individuals. KW - Political Science KW - Labor unions -- United States KW - Poor -- Political activity -- United States LA - English ER -