Postbellum Electoral Politics in California and the Genesis of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Vincent Geloso and Linan Peng
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Vincent Geloso: Department of Economics, George Mason University
Linan Peng: Department of Economics and Management, DePauw University

No 2021-02, Working Papers from DePauw University, School of Business and Leadership and Department of Economics and Management

Abstract: After the Civil War, the Democratic party carried an important electoral penalty from being associated with the war. To deal with this penalty, the party took increasingly anti-immigration positions to compete with Republicans. This led some Republican strongholds such as California to become competitive and also forced Republicans to embrace stricter immigration proposals. In this paper, we argue that adopting anti-immigration and raising awareness against immigration made California increasingly competitive in electoral terms. This electoral competitiveness can serve to explain the genesis of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Keywords: Immigration; Chinese Exclusion Act; Anti-Chinese Movement; Political Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H59 J15 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-his, nep-isf, nep-mig and nep-pol
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