Asian American Congressional Representation
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Department
Political Science
Major
Political Science / Sociology
Abstract
While studies have researched substantive representation of other minority groups, this paper is the first to examine Asian American congressional representation. I ask two questions. First do Asian American legislators vote differently on roll call votes than other members of their party? Second, do Asian American constituents get less of what they want from government compared to White American? I use a quantitative analysis to answer both of these questions. First, I examine the interest group scores of Asian American legislators compared to other legislators from the same political party to determine whether Asian American legislators tend to vote differently. Second, I use the 2004 National Annenberg Survey results to understand how well Asian Americans are represented by their elected officials than other ethnic groups. When observing general measures of ideology, the results show that Asian American representatives tend to vote more liberally than other party members, however when observing specific issues, their votes are not distinctive. Additionally, I find that Asian American constituents are just as disadvantaged as African American and Latino American constituents.
Faculty Mentor
Brian Newman
Funding Source or Research Program
Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative
Presentation Session
Session A
Location
Plaza Classroom 189
Start Date
3-4-2015 5:45 PM
End Date
3-4-2015 6:00 PM
Asian American Congressional Representation
Plaza Classroom 189
While studies have researched substantive representation of other minority groups, this paper is the first to examine Asian American congressional representation. I ask two questions. First do Asian American legislators vote differently on roll call votes than other members of their party? Second, do Asian American constituents get less of what they want from government compared to White American? I use a quantitative analysis to answer both of these questions. First, I examine the interest group scores of Asian American legislators compared to other legislators from the same political party to determine whether Asian American legislators tend to vote differently. Second, I use the 2004 National Annenberg Survey results to understand how well Asian Americans are represented by their elected officials than other ethnic groups. When observing general measures of ideology, the results show that Asian American representatives tend to vote more liberally than other party members, however when observing specific issues, their votes are not distinctive. Additionally, I find that Asian American constituents are just as disadvantaged as African American and Latino American constituents.