Social structure, political institutions, and mobilization potential

The increasingly diverse set of issues that form the basis of both traditional and nontraditional political activity has been attributed to the structural changes occurring in postindustrial societies. In the social movement literature, surprisingly lit tie attention has been paid to the specific ways in which social structure, rather than structural change, impacts interest formation and interest articulation. In this article I argue that some forms of structural differentiation promote distributions of interests in which some interests cannot effectively be channelled into electoral politics. Variables measuring the structural differentiation of Colorado counties, in income inequality, educational inequality, ethnic heterogeneity, and industrial heterogeneity, are used to examine the relationship or the ''fit'' between party voting and voting on ballot initiatives concerning social or cultural issues.