ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS AND DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was widely heralded as a solution to persistently high levels of Black political alienation and cynicism. But despite the importance of the Voting Rights Act for the political representation of historically marginalized groups, little is known about how citizens protected by key provisions of the Act viewed democratic institutions. Integrating insights from the policy feedback literature with studies on the relationship between electoral institutions and attitudes toward government, we predict that the voting protections embedded in the Voting Rights Act led to more favorable attitudes toward government among affected communities. Analyses of data from 1972 to 1998 show that Black citizens in jurisdictions covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the preclearance provision, exhibited consistently higher levels of trust in government and more positive perceptions of governmental responsiveness. However, we find no evidence that preclearance was associated with similar patterns among whites. Our results may have especially important contemporary relevance given recent controversies over changes to state and local election laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]