Urban politics is a politics of identity; racial/ethnic groups identify and are likely to vote for candidates they see as sharing similar characteristics. Those similar characteristics can be associated with two types of representation: descriptive representation and substantive representation. Descriptive representation is the representation of the group in government positions, referring to what representatives look like and how they think, such as a city with many Latinos having a Latino mayor in office. Substantive representation on the other hand is the representation of the group’s interests, values, and needs in public policy, regardless of whether it has descriptive representation. Political representation has a few key components: a party that is representing; a party that is being represented; opinions/ interests/values being represented; the political context; and opinions/interests/values being left out.
Incorporation constitutes inclusion in coalitions able to acquire and dominate formal power, and empowerment entails consistent responsiveness to pro-group interests. In general, descriptive representation is preferred over representation from non-group members because there is a perceived notion that members of a group have shared experiences, attributes, and characteristics that result in legislation consistent with that group’s values. In relation to Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders, scholars would recognize that Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders had acquired descriptive and substantive representation when more members and values associated with the group gain formal power.
Whether as mayors or member of city councils, Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders are likely to have formal power in local government when there is a majority in the municipality. To evaluate this, it is helpful to analyze the impact majorities have on other identity groups such as African-Americans and Latinos. In the case of African-Americans, holding a demographic majority increases the probability of gaining descriptive representation in local government, especially with relation to wining city council positions.
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This has been evident in cities like Atlanta where there has been a historically large presence of African-American residents for decades, resulting in a larger share of city council seats being held by African-Americans (12 out of 15 seats). Acquiring city council seats has been shown to increase the likelihood of the mayoralty being won by African-Americans; each additional black city councilor corresponds to about a one percentage point increase in the probability of electing a black mayor. When considering the Latino community, there is a positive correlation between population size and representation on school boards and city councils. However, studies have shown that despite the positive relationship between population size and representation, the coefficient is markedly lower than that of the African-American community.
When evaluating both of these groups, it can be inferred that Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders will behave like Latinos due to considerable disparities in nativity, social environment, and racial attitudes. Despite this, the Latino community tends to incorporate more favorable policies outcomes as their size increases. Given this, it can also be inferred that having a majority Asian-Americans and Pacific islander population does not necessarily signal a stark departure from the expected substantive representation in governance and policy implementation, rather more moderate policies that match the broad policy preferences of Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders, such as multilingual ballots.
In concurrence with the aforementioned hypothesis, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders may be less likely to hold formal power in local government when there is a plurality in the demographics of the municipality. As Paula McClain found in her study of political competition between Black and Latino communities, pluralities between Black and Latino communities have resulted in political competition that favors Black representation over Latino representation, but that ultimately favors White representation as the beneficiary from competition between racial/ethnic minority groups.
The same study found that gentrification in cities is providing White citizens with increased political influence, consequently stripping minorities of formal power due to problems that had already dampened the likelihood of successful minority coalitions, notably the large influx of non-voting-eligible Latino immigrants diluting the influence of Latinos on urban electoral outcomes. Plurality in cities studied by Paula McClain indicate that Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders are in competition with other minority groups as well as White citizens therefore decreasing the likelihood of Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders holding formal power in local government. Such plurality in cities suggests that the policy preferences of Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders, will not be as salient due to competition with the policy preferences of other identity groups.
Furthermore, Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders are likely to have formal power in the form of Mayoralties in municipalities with reformed governments (council-manager; weak mayor-strong council). Unreformed governments (mayor-council; strong mayor-weak council) are normally associated with group politics, which requires a coalition approach to mayoral victories. Given this, the likelihood of minority groups acquiring a mayoralty, specifically African-Americans, has been shown to increase in reformed local governments.
This would bode well for the acquisition of a mayoralty by Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders living in reformed cities due to two assumptions: reformed cities allow better descriptive representation in city council; and more descriptive representation results in a stronger probability of an Asian-American or Pacific islander being appointed mayor. However, due to reformed cities containing weak mayors that hold minimal formal power, Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders will not gain a significant amount of formal power from a mayoralty unless they also hold a majority in their respective city councils. In turn, the policy preferences of Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders are more likely to be implemented in reformed cities due to increased opportunities to obtain formal power through seats in city council.
In the case of cities with histories of minority representation in local government, Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders are more likely to have formal power. When considering a large city with a history of minority representation, such as New York City, it becomes apparent that the empowerment of one identity groups has the ability to resonate with other marginalized groups and encourage them to strive toward the acquisition of formal power. As Black communities in New York City began to gain representation, the Latino community naturally attempted to gain formal power as its population was sufficiently large enough to warrant the acquisition of formal power. However, Latinos were not able to acquire formal power to the extent that Black communities did due to in large part to obstacles mentioned in this paper, namely plurality in demographics and disparities in nativity. Consequently, Asian-Americans are dragged into the same situation as Latinos due to the same reasons and deprived of policies favorable to Asian-American and Pacific islander communities.
In the United States, Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders do not constitute the majority in most cities, so cooperation with other groups to acquire and share formal power is likely in most cities. This seemingly forced cooperation can be seen between Black communities and Latino communities, or “Black-Brown coalitions” as they were referred to in-class. Although not always the case, the Black community has coalesced with the Latino community to form black-brown coalitions when their common struggles are emphasized, such as having similar neighborhood conditions (lack of good jobs, quality of schools, etc.). Under the context of shared group struggles, Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders are more likely to cooperate with other groups. However, it is more likely to see intergroup political conflict due to the instability of multiracial coalitions and because of zero-sum games regarding municipal contracts and individual-group pursuits of descriptive representation
