The Advent of Asian American Politicians

Over the past several decades, studies of the experience of African Americans and Hispanics in politics have drawn valuable conclusions on minority representation; however, it remains unknown whether these conclusions apply to a newly advanced minority group: Asian Americans. This dissertation attempts to fill this gap in the minority representation research by extending attention to the advent of Asian American politicians. Specifically, it provides a comprehensive examination of the context, dynamics and impact of this phenomenon.;Chapter 1 sets the stage by discussing the status of research on minority representation in general and that of Asian American studies in particular. This introduction highlights the necessity of a systematic and comprehensive understanding of my research topic.;Chapter 2 examines public attitudes toward Asian Americans. I review the improvement in public attitudes in recent decades and discuss how this has created a favorable environment for the emergence of political aspirants from an Asian background. Next, I hone in on the current society and assess the situation facing Asian American politicians nowadays. I also examine a few factors associated with people's attitudes.;Chapters 3 through 5 focus on the impact of political structure on the advent of Asian American politicians. I use a two-phase framework to accommodate unique dynamics during the candidate supply and actual election phases. Hypotheses on the role of political structure at each phase are tested using data from city council elections in California. The results show that political structure does not affect the emergence of Asian American candidates in a significant manner. However, in elections with Asian American candidates running, certain structural arrangements, i.e. majority vote requirement and council size, do have an impact on their electoral performance.;Chapter 6 evaluates the policy outcomes of electing Asian Americans to city councils by performing regression discontinuity analyses. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation with a discussion of major findings and recommendations for future research.