Minority Versus Minority: Partisanship and Inter-Group Competitions Among Asian Americans

Abstract

Increasingly salient in democratic politics are the divides among political parties regarding how they mobilize supports between ethnic majorities and minorities. Why, then, do some members of a minority group support political parties that seem antithetical to the interests of minority groups? We draw on group conflict theory to suggest that a partial explanation rests on perceived competition within minority groups. We test this theory by focusing on Republican Party support among Asian Americans in the United States. Based on two representative surveys and an original online survey experiment of Asian Americans, we demonstrate that perceived competition among racial minority groups has a significant effect on the partisanship of Asian American and pushes them toward the Republican Party. We also present observational evidence suggesting our theory applies to other minority groups. Our findings provide critical implications on how race affects politics in democracies with increasingly diversified ethnic minority groups.