Böcker av Pei-Te Lien

Asian Americans are believed to be passive and compliant participants in the US political process if they participate at all. This book maps the actions and strategies of Asian Americans as they negotiate a space in the American political arena. It looks at political participation by Asian Americans prior to 1965.

Through the perspectives of mass politics, this book challenges popular misconceptions about Asian Americans as politically apathetic, disloyal, fragmented, unsophisticated and inscrutable.

Contested Transformation constitutes the first comprehensive study of racial and ethnic minorities holding elective office in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Building on data from the Gender and Multicultural Leadership (GMCL) National Database and Survey, it provides a baseline portrait of Black, Latino, Asian American, and American Indian elected officials - the women and men holding public office at national, state, and local levels of government. Analysis reveals commonalities and differences across race and gender groups on their backgrounds, paths to public office, leadership roles, and policy positions. Challenging mainstream political science theories in their applicability to elected officials of color, the book offers new understandings of the experiences of those holding public office today. Gains in political leadership and influence by people of color are transforming the American political landscape, but they have occurred within a contested political context, one where struggles for racial and gender equality continue.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Based on the empirical analysis of surveys explores the relation between ethnic identity and electoral political participation on three levels: between the four major racial/ethnic groups Americans, inside the multi-ethnic Asian American population, and among Koreans as a specific ethnic group. Emp