IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dew/wpaper/2021-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Vincent Geloso

    (Department of Economics, George Mason University)

  • Linan Peng

    (Department of Economics and Management, DePauw University)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent Geloso & Linan Peng, 2021. "Postbellum Electoral Politics in California and the Genesis of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882," Working Papers 2021-02, DePauw University, School of Business and Leadership and Department of Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:dew:wpaper:2021-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.depauw.edu/site/learn/dew/wpaper/workingpapers/DePauw2021-02-Geloso-Peng-Postbellum-Electoral-Politics-in-California.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert A. Margo, 2000. "Introduction to "Wages and Labor Markets in the United States, 1820-1860"," NBER Chapters, in: Wages and Labor Markets in the United States, 1820-1860, pages 1-5, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Robert A. Margo, 2000. "Wages and Labor Markets in the United States, 1820-1860," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number marg00-1.
    3. Goldin, Claudia & Libecap, Gary D. (ed.), 1994. "The Regulated Economy," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226301105, September.
    4. Cohn, Raymond L., 2000. "Nativism and the End of the Mass Migration of the 1840s and 1850s," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 361-383, June.
    5. Claudia Goldin, 1994. "The Political Economy of Immigration Restriction in the United States, 1890 to 1921," NBER Chapters, in: The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy, pages 223-258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Higgs, Robert, 1985. "Crisis, bigger government, and ideological change: Two hypotheses on the ratchet phenomenon," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-28, January.
    7. Ho-Po Crystal Wong & J. R. Clark & Joshua C. Hall, 2018. "Immigrant Ethnic Composition and the Adoption of Women’s Suffrage in the United States," Studies in Public Choice, in: Joshua Hall & Marcus Witcher (ed.), Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History, chapter 0, pages 167-178, Springer.
    8. Joshua Hall & Marcus Witcher (ed.), 2018. "Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History," Studies in Public Choice, Springer, number 978-3-319-95819-4, December.
    9. Joshua Hall & Marcus Witcher (ed.), 2018. "Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History," Studies in Public Choice, Springer, number 978-3-319-77592-0, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vincent Geloso & Linan Peng, 2024. "Postbellum electoral politics in California and the genesis of the Chinese exclusion act of 1882," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 403-434, June.
    2. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    3. Robert A. Margo, 2014. "The economic history of migration: the pre-World War One USA as lens," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 3, pages 42-64, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Sandra Sequeira & Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2020. "Immigrants and the Making of America," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(1), pages 382-419.
    5. Biavaschi, Costanza & Facchini, Giovanni, 2020. "Immigrant Franchise and Immigration Policy: Evidence from the Progressive Era," IZA Discussion Papers 13195, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Salisbury, Laura, 2014. "Selective migration, wages, and occupational mobility in nineteenth century America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 40-63.
    7. Paola Conconi & Giovanni Facchini & Max F. Steinhardt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2020. "The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 250-278, July.
    8. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda, 2009. "The Political Economy of Immigration Policy," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-03, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Apr 2009.
    9. Leah Platt Boustan & Price V. Fishback & Shawn Kantor, 2010. "The Effect of Internal Migration on Local Labor Markets:American Cities during the Great Depression," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 719-746, October.
    10. Philipp Ager & James J Feigenbaum & Casper W Hansen & Hui Ren Tan, 2024. "How the Other Half Died: Immigration and Mortality in U.S. Cities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 1-44.
    11. Facchini, Giovanni & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2011. "What drives U.S. immigration policy? Evidence from congressional roll call votes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 734-743, August.
    12. Margo, Robert A., 2016. "Obama, Katrina, and the Persistence of Racial Inequality," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 301-341, June.
    13. Fabrice Murtin & Martina Viarengo, 2010. "American education in the age of mass migrations 1870–1930," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 4(2), pages 113-139, June.
    14. Alberto Alesina & Marco Tabellini, 2024. "The Political Effects of Immigration: Culture or Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 5-46, March.
    15. Zimran, Ariell, 2022. "US immigrants’ secondary migration and geographic assimilation during the Age of Mass Migration," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. Michael R. Strain & Stan Veuger, 2022. "Economic shocks and clinging," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 456-475, July.
    17. Jim Dolmas & Gregory W. Huffman, 2004. "On The Political Economy Of Immigration And Income Redistribution," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1129-1168, November.
    18. Tabellini, Marco, 2020. "Racial Heterogeneity and Local Government Finances: Evidence from the Great Migration," CEPR Discussion Papers 14319, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Razin, Assaf & Sadka, Efraim, 2021. "Migration and Redistribution: Federal Governance of an Economic Union Matters," CEPR Discussion Papers 15902, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. David Autor & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2020. "Extending the Race between Education and Technology," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 347-351, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigration; Chinese Exclusion Act; Anti-Chinese Movement; Political Economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • H59 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dew:wpaper:2021-02. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Humberto Barreto (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emdepus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.