ABSTRACT
Research on ethnic political mobilization and representation is due for a broad review. Current subfield divisions promote studying ethnic political mobilization as a distinct category of mass behavior, with a primary focus on voter turnout. Similarly, ethnic political representation is investigated as a distinct problem, primarily associated with the composition of legislatures. There is no research program to analyze how ethnic political mobilization and representation differs from that of other political constituencies. There is also little attempt to connect studies of ethnic representation in national political institutions with studies of the mass behavior of ethnic groups. Though ethnic voter turnout and support for minority legislators are the focus of the current literature, studies of the history of national policymaking about minority rights and concerns demonstrate that ethnic representative interest organizations working in several political institutions were often responsible for policy change (e.g., Skrentny 2002; Haney and Vanderbush 1999). It is time to ask whether the behavior of ethnic groups and their organized representatives constitute a unique class of political activity or a series of dissimilar case studies of the general patterns of mobilization and representation in American national politics.
