ABSTRACT
In the late 1990s it is commonplace to hear suggestions that ethnic minority1 political participation, whatever the advances of recent years, still lags behind the standards expected of a mature industrial democracy. In everyday terms this suggestion is illustrated by a broad, cross-party willingness to encourage enhanced, ethnic minority, voter participation and occupation of elective office. It is further encouraged by a range of party and extra-party efforts to build democratic institutions that are social microcosms of British society. Against this backdrop, it is also common to witness sharply-contrasting claims made by political activists and party managers alike concerning the nature and behaviour of ethnic minorities in the democratic process. Some twenty years after the first party-based attempts to capture the socalled “ethnic vote”, conceptual understanding of that term remains as wide open as ever. The search is on for the essence of ethnic minority political identity.
