Research shows that the federal government often privileges the interests of affluent Americans and businesses over those of ordinary Americans. When government enacts legislation that benefits the privileged, it often exacerbates existing economic inequalities. Why the wealthy and organized business groups are more likely to get their way from government remains unclear.

The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 sparked peaceful protests, riots, vandalism, vigils, and many other forms of activism across the U.S. and around the world. The unprecedented levels of participation by White Americans potentially represent a significant shift in intergroup relations among activists that might reflect changes in their attitudes, views of democracy, and organizational engagement. Sociologist Dana Fisher and political scientists Michael Heaney and Stella Rouse will investigate whether and how activists changed their views and participation over time.

The pandemic has wrought considerable hardship on racialized and immigrant groups. In Chicago, Black residents are dying of COVID-19 at five times the rate of Whites. Latinx groups have the highest rates of cases in Illinois, and Little Village—the Chicago neighborhood with the most cases is densely populated with many undocumented immigrants. While these groups have experienced very high rates of job loss, food insecurity, and inability to pay rent, many are excluded from government programs intended to ameliorate COVID-19’s effects.

Why and when do people act for the common good when they could free-ride instead? Current events spotlight this question. First, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people have been asked to promote the collective good of public health by wearing masks and maintaining social distance. Why do some people oblige while others object? Second, protesters pursue the collective good of policy change.

The level of partisanship characterizing the U.S. pandemic response is unprecedented in recent politics. Under typical circumstances, public health crises raise the public’s anxiety, leading them to seek out information and to become more trusting in medical experts, but during the COVID-19 crisis, the information provided to the public by experts and the government has precipitated a partisan divide over the seriousness of the threat.

Afro-Cuban exiles and immigrants faced discrimination in housing, schooling, and employment when they arrived in Miami in the 1960s, as well as in the post-civil rights 1970s and beyond.

The COVID-19 crisis forced many states to postpone primary elections and/or hold them mostly by mail. Yet most Americans are not accustomed to voting by mail (VBM). Previous research suggests that barriers to voting by mail already exist for communities of color and immigrants, and data from elections held during the COVID-19 pandemic confirm that people of color return mail ballots at lower rates than whites.