What is the relationship between racial and political orders? Drawing on literatures in political sociology, racial and ethnic studies, and on the empirical instance of immigration and nationality policy in the Americas, this chapter explores how states have relied on ideas of race to determine political membership and how racial orders have relied on state institutionalization processes. It also defines political and racial orders, explores the state as a complex organization, race as an historically contingent and key category of hierarchical distinction making, and proposes domains in which to examine the interconnection of these orders.