Political Transnationalism and Political Engagement

Abstract

The political transnationalism of Americans overseas is not a recent phenomenon, but only emerged strongly in widespread public and academic consciousness when the outcome of the 2000 presidential election was determined by 537 overseas absentee votes in the state of Florida (Imai and King 2007: 537). Their political transnationalism was further highlighted through the high-profile 2008 Democratic primary campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That primary was as hotly contested among Democrats outside the United States as inside, and still arises from time to time as a bone of contention. Yet the basic foundation of formal political engagement, voting, has been possible for all overseas Americans only since 1976. It was only through intense grassroots lobbying of the US Congress — political transnationalism — by overseas Americans (see Chapter 7) — that the right to vote for all overseas Americans was achieved.