Christian Collet

Minority Candidates, Alternative Media, and Multiethnic America: Deracialization or Toggling?

Conceptualizingapoliticalworld“beyondblackandwhite”isafamiliarscholarlyrefrain,buttheoreticalrelicsofbipolarityremain. The deracialization concept, a much-discussed phenomenon in American elections, is one example. Asian American campaigns provideaninterestingcasefortestingtheutilityofderacializationinmulticulturalurbanmilieus,giventheoverwhelmingtendency for such candidates to be elected from predominantly non-Asian constituencies. Looking in depth at two successful campaigns by Vietnamese Americans in Northern and Southern California, I argue for a broadened approach that can better account for changes in the American political mosaic—namely, increases in immigration occurring in some of the country’s fastest growing regions and the availability of alternative media. I call this approach toggling. In this article, I outline the toggling strategy. I conclude by considering the impact of toggling on equality in the American democratic process and suggest some directions for future research.

Does NHK Make You Smarter (and Super News Make You ‘Softer’)? An Examination of Japanese Political Knowledge and the Potential Influence of TV News

A fundamental component of liberal democracy – citizen knowledge – has only recently been examined in Japan; rarer still are assessments of the impact of media consumption on political awareness. In this paper, we utilize two recent sources – the Japanese Election Studies III (JESIII) and GLOPE2005 – to address two related questions: (1) what factors influence Japanese political knowledge? and (2) is the changing media environment in Japan having an influence on what citizens know about political affairs? With regard to the first question, we find, in line with previous studies in the US context, that knowledge is explained by education, gender, and politically impinged employment as base factors, with interest, efficacy, and civic duty playing a role as second-stage behavioral factors. Evidence of other traits presumed to distinguish the more informed Japanese – dissatisfaction with politics and community mobilization context (living in urban areas, districts with higher voter turnout, and having larger social networks – remains mixed. Regarding the second question, we find that the effects of media exposure on knowledge vary. Where the GLOPE2005 finds an influence of regular newspaper reading, the JESIII indicates that watching a TV news program ‘often’ also boosts knowledge. The JESIII results reveal further that, ceteris paribus , regular exposure to NHK contributes to higher levels of knowledge at a rate that is comparable to a one unit increase in educational attainment. Conversely, we find that softer news programs (e.g., Fuji TVs Super News ) have a depressive effect that appears to decrease knowledge as exposure accumulates. The direction of the causal arrow is not entirely clear. At the same time, our findings lend credence to previous work that raises concerns about the ‘infotainization’ of Japanese (and US) news programming (e.g., Taniguchi, 2007; Prior, 2005). Rather than demystifying or democratizing Japanese politics, softer programs may simply be perpetuating extant gaps between elites and the public.

Is Globalization Undermining Civilizational Identities? A Test of Huntington's Core State Assumptions among the Publics of Greater Asia and the Pacific

Samuel Huntingtons influential clash of civilizations hypothesis (Huntington, 1993; Huntington, 1996) has been widely debated, but empirical tests of his ideas about core states remain limited at the micro-level. In this paper, we bring new evidence to bear, focusing on the ‘cauldron of civilizations’: Greater Asia and the Pacific. Using the AsiaBarometer, we examine the extent to which publics in the region identify with the core states of the supposedly most contentious civilizations in the region – the US, China, and Iran – and the factors that influence those perceptions. We give attention to the role of globalization and nationalism and whether both may be subsumed by religiosity as Huntington suggests. Our descriptive evidence affirms some of the tensions between the US, China, and Islamic-predominant Asia identified by Huntington as areas of potential conflict. At the same time, we find no evidence to suggest that attitudes toward core states are zero-sum; Asian publics often see rival powers as mutually good influences. Using multivariate analysis, we find that religiosity, as the clash paradigm surmises, boosts Iranian influence and undermines American influence in several predominantly Islamic states. We also find, contrary to Huntington, that overall exposure to foreign cultures leads to a more positive assessment of American influence among Chinese and Pakistanis, as well as American perceptions of China. When foreign exposure influences perceptions of Iran, the effect is modestly, but consistently, negative. Taken together, the findings raise questions about two key assumptions of the Huntington framework – civilizational identity formation and cultural resurgence – and suggest that alternative approaches in recent civilizations literature show greater empirical promise.

Are ballot box issues enough? Nakanishi’s indication and the case for Asian Pacific American transnational politics in an age of domestic disruption

ABSTRACT The occasion of honoring Don Nakanishi presents an opportunity to reflect on the challenge of understanding Asian Pacific American politics amid the dueling forces of rapid globalization and disruption to domestic institutions. Observing that the study of APAs in political science has largely developed along the lines of voting behavior, the case is made for recognizing Nakanishi’s long standing call for an inclusive, internationalized field that defines participation broadly and positions it transnationally. A review of what survey research has yielded on APA transnational politics suggests significant variations among sub-groups as well as several directions for future work in this burgeoning scholarly domain.

Soccer, politics and the American public: still ‘exceptional’?

In 1988, Andrei Markovits first published the argument that soccer in the United States encounters an ‘exceptional’ experience because America’s ‘hegemonic sports culture’ has ‘crowded out’ the sport by virtue of historically determined factors, including popular acceptance. Twenty years after USA ’94, it seems appropriate to revisit this idea. In this paper, I utilize survey data from multiple sources to make three arguments. First, interest in soccer among the public has been generally stable over time; second, relative to other countries, American fans are not discernibly exceptional; third, what discerns fans are characteristics that appear to be a function of the sport’s diversity. This makes the ongoing ‘exceptional’ characterization ironic, as the binary continues to serve those who deride soccer as ‘un-American’. While Markovits has identified a critical period in soccer’s past, moving beyond the deterministic exceptionalist model is imperative for future research on the American game.

Waiting for the real dragon: How globalization, patriotism and trust shape tolerance in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is the world’s most diverse and rapidly modernizing region, yet one where modernization theory is challenged (e.g. Bell et al., 1995) and where allegiance to authoritarian regimes appears trenchant (Chang et al., 2013; Dalton and Shin, 2014). Using the AsiaBarometer, I consider the influence of modernization and allegiance on potential democratization by analyzing an established indicator of assertive change: tolerance of homosexuality (Inglehart and Welzel, 2005: Ch. 5, forthcoming). The findings reveal differences between Southeast Asians and the West and between citizens in the Sinic and Indic subregions. Exposure to foreign cultures produces a significant increase in tolerance among Sinicized citizens, but has no meaningful effect on those in Indic states. Patriotism and trust in civil society also boost tolerance among Sinicized citizens, but reduce the probability of tolerance among citizens in Indic states. The strong linkage between sexual tolerance and gender equality driven by social factors and secularism in the West does not manifest in Southeast Asia. While the findings suggest potential for change in the Sinicized region, they underscore the different effects that globalization and allegiance may have on citizens living under Southeast Asia’s variety of regimes.