Affirmative Action Policies in Public Universities: Literature Review

Overview:

My research question was originally on hate crimes and domestic American policies combating it. However, after my literature review, I decided to narrow it. Specifically, I decided to focus on federal American government policies rather than examining regions or states. Moreover, I aimed to address educational government policies that target racial groups and their potential for racial discrimination and outcomes of educational equity. Specifically, I aimed to examine the analysis of affirmative action policies in public universities and public middle/high schools from the 1970s to the 2010s. Education was a topic suggested by my TA because I found it difficult to find relevant political science journal articles revolving around racial hate crimes.

Overall, both qualitative and quantitative research findings promoted the idea of educational inclusive policies like Affirmative Action as positive. Case studies and correlational studies suggest that public universities with a significant number of supportive university officials have increased the enrollment of minorities on campus. There is more support to examine the descriptive analysis of diversity inclusion in public universities and high schools, conditions of economic poverty, and social issues in relation to educational attainment results of minorities.

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• Original Research Question: To what extent is American public policy in addressing hate crimes in the 21st century different from American public policy in the 20th century?
• Modified Research Question: To what extent is the federal American policy of Affirmative Action and other federal diverse policies effectively addressing diversity in the 21st century than the policies of the 20th century?

Hero, Rodney E., and Caroline J. Tolbert. “A Racial/Ethnic Diversity Interpretation of Politics and Policy in the States of the U.S.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 40, no. 3, Aug. 1996, p. 851. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.2307/2111798.

• Research Hypothesis: Both racial and ethnic diversity provides an abstract and empirical framework in understanding federal American policies.
• Research Design: Both qualitative and quantitative analysis is used to measure racial and ethnic diversity. The paper states indices are compared, utilizing “political culture” categories. These categories and indices are analyzed using descriptive analysis along with making inferential statistics. The independent variable is considered racial/ethnic diversity and the dependent variable would be racial policy outcomes.
• Findings: Professors Hero and Tolbert reveal that the analysis of relationships between different ethnic groups is critical. Specific homogenous-area populations produce policies that do not provide desired outcomes for minority groups (homogenous groups have smaller amounts of ethnic minorities living but mostly a large white population). However, heterogeneous-area populations will tend to have diverse policies that lean towards neutral or positive outcomes for minorities to flourish (heterogeneous areas are defined as areas with largely white populations and significant ethnic minorities live).

Hetherington, Marc J., and Suzanne Globetti. “Political Trust and Racial Policy Preferences.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 46, no. 2, Apr. 2002, p. 253. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.2307/3088375.

• Research Hypothesis: An increase in political distrust will affect opposition and impediment to racial policy support.
• Research Design: Professor Hetherington utilized survey data targeted at white and black respondents during the years of 1990-1994. Hetherington also uses six racial policy preferences as dependent variables while the independent variable would be racial policy preference (including factors such as political trust, partisanship, conservatism, racial resentment, income, support for equality, etc.) (Hetherington 258).
• Findings: After combating endogeneity, Hetherington argues that political trust does affect racial policy preferences. Specifically, an increase in political distrust of the federal government is demonstrated when white people perceive inclusive racial policies as affecting their benefits.

Kellstedt, Paul. “Media Framing and the Dynamics of Racial Policy Preferences”. American Journal of Political Science, p. 17.

• Research Hypothesis: Professor Paul Kellstadt argues that using longitudinal data, there is an increase in “liberal peaks in racial policy preferences, followed by drifts toward conservatism, and drifts back again in a liberal direction” (Kellstedt 250). Kellstadt argues that this movement is synchronous and relevant to racial policies. He also argues a macro-level theory of how racial policy preferences emerge due to media portrayal of such policies and using time-series analysis.
• Research Design: Professor Kellstadt utilizes longitudinal data such as diverse 19 time-series items related to racial policies. By analyzing the longitudinal survey data, Professor Kellstadt studies the independent variables of media-endorse individualism and egalitarianism values. He argues that the dependent variable would be racial policy preferences.
• Findings: Kellstadt argues that no causal relationship was detected between individualistic media coverage/framing and racial policy preferences due to the p-value of 0.690 (Kellstadt 254) while racial policy preferences did not influence media framing to be individualistic since p=0.816 (Kellstadt 254). In comparison, “egalitarian media framing causes racial policy preferences” due to the p of 0.01 (Kellstadt 254) while “no evidence can be found that racial policy preferences drive egalitarian media coverage (p=0.636) (Kellstadt 254). Overall, the temporal ordering does not flow from personal opinion to mainstream media coverage when pertaining to racial policies (Kellstadt 254).

Kuklinski, James H., et al. “Racial Prejudice and Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 41, no. 2, Apr. 1997, p. 402. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.2307/2111770.

• Research Hypothesis: Professor Kuklinski argues several hypotheses he was testing. The first hypothesis was explicit prejudice of white-American voters still exist predominantly in the United States. The second hypothesis was prejudice is not the sole explanation for resisting policies about Affirmative Action. Finally, the last hypothesis was that white-American voters opposing Affirmative Action is not unyielding.
• Research Design: This research paper examined the relationship between explicit racial prejudice towards affirmative action policies. Professor Kuklinski utilized national survey data measuring attitudes of racial prejudice and analyzed experimental results derived from surveys.
• The independent variable was measuring overt, explicit racial prejudice. This measurement of prejudice was among white people who openly expressed negative sentiments towards African-Americans and other ethnic minorities. The dependent variable included Affirmative Action support. Using representative samples, professor Kuklinski and his team collected experimental survey data by implementing interviews. The interviewers would list specific political statements such as “the federal government is increasing the tax on gasoline” and “Black leaders asking for affirmative action” while asking interviewees how many of the specific statements made them upset (Kuklinski 405).
• Findings: Professor Kuklinski reports that overt racial prejudice still exists in the United States and accounts for part of the resistance towards Affirmative Action. However, this explanation does not provide a causal relationship between overt racial prejudice and resistance toward inclusive educational policies.

Lipson, Daniel N. “The Resilience of Affirmative Action in the 1980s: Innovation, Isomorphism, and Institutionalization in University Admissions.” Political Research Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 1, Mar. 2011, pp. 132–44. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1177/1065912909346737.

• Research Hypothesis/Research Question: To what extent has institutionalization of racial affirmative action admissions procedures affected university officials’ leadership in three specific public universities from the time range of the 1970s to the 1990s?

The political science case study examines this question of how racial affirmative action policies enacted by university officials in three specific universities can influence admissions teams to be more race-conscious and reflect on racial equity.

• Research Design: The research design consisted of conducting a qualitative literature review of affirmative action policies and conducting a case study of three specific public university campuses in their facilitation of Affirmative Action. These universities include the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Texas at Austin. The variables for the case study included the three specific public universities, university leadership, and ethnic minority enrollment quotas per campus.

Professor Daniel Lipson first explains his usage of neo-organizational theory in examining these universities’ implementation of affirmative action. The variables examined in this case study include the three specific universities, their admission selective rates, and their history of liberal leadership in admissions. By conducting the case study, Professor Lipson conducted “43 semi-structured interviews” (Lipson 141) with 38 university officials who mostly favored the reformation of race-conscious admissions processes. These officials included a UC regent, administrators, admission chairs, and professors.

• Findings: Firstly, there is a lack of generalization due to how the case study’s sample size is too small. Professor Lipson’s qualitative data points to an increase in liberal officials who favor reforming and providing more inclusive racial admissions policies during admissions processes. For example, Lipson states that liberal minority state legislators pressured state universities like UC Berkeley to further increase the enrollment of minority groups on their campuses. Despite opposition from Reagan-era government officials and conservative professors during the 1970s, more race-conscious inclusive policies have included Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans while providing more aid and policies to help disadvantaged students. Lipson reported that both UT-Austin and UC Berkeley “dramatically increased African American and Hispanic enrollments” during the 1970s-80s (Lipson 141). However, UW-Madison’s enforcement of racial inclusivity slightly increased minority enrollment in the 1990s.

Lipson, Daniel N. “Where’s the Justice? Affirmative Action’s Severed Civil Rights Roots in the Age of Diversity.” Perspectives on Politics, vol. 6, no. 4, Dec. 2008, pp. 691–706. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1017/S1537592708081863.

• Research Hypothesis: Universities that modify or replace affirmative action policies with organizational diversity policies encounter substantive changes in racial minority enrollments and further institutionalized protection of diverse inclusivity in the long term.
• Research Design: Professor Lipson utilizes a literature review and qualitative analysis of specific case studies on Supreme Court cases like Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and a civil rights framework.
• Findings: Lipson’s research article argues that race-based inclusive policies have increased both ethnic minority enrollments at universities and the notion of affirmative action becoming “increasingly entrenched in American policy” (Lipson 700)

Reardon, Sean. “School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 2, no. 5, 2016, p. 34. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.7758/rsf.2016.2.5.03.

• Research Hypothesis: The higher the poverty rate of schools, the greater the difference in academic achievement gaps of schools. This research hypothesis aims to provide a detailed descriptive analysis of how school poverty rates can affect achievement gaps between African American schoolchildren, Hispanic schoolchildren, and white schoolchildren. The research hypothesis does not imply a causal relationship where poverty rates of minority schoolchildren solely affect their academic performance. Instead, professor Reardon argues that this bivariate correlational relationship between the poverty rates of schoolchildren and a greater difference in achievement gaps disproportionately affects poor Hispanic and African-American schoolchildren in low-income neighborhoods with schools.
• Research Design: Professor Reardon utilizes public school accountability test scores per state, measuring the academic results of students in grades 3 to 8. Reardon constructs a database of tables showing accountability test scores and utilizing analysis of bivariate correlations between racial segregation and academic achievement gaps.
• Research Findings: Professor Reardon states that racial segregation due to income levels of minority and white families, produces racial differences to exposure to classmates of poverty background. This strong correlational relationship is related to the wide academic gap between minority schoolchildren and white schoolchildren due to existing covariables that are connected to achievement gaps such as unemployment rates, racial disparities in income levels of families, and parental care. Overall, his findings show that Hispanic and African-American schoolchildren encounter higher poverty rates and disproportionately attend schools with lower resources. He argues for more race-specific integration policies to “eliminate racial disparities in school poverty” (Reardon 50).

Sabbagh, Daniel. “The Rise of Indirect Affirmative Action: Converging Strategies for Promoting ‘Diversity’ in Selective Institutions of Higher Education in the United States and France.” World Politics, vol. 63, no. 3, July 2011, pp. 470–508. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1017/S0043887111000128.

• Research Hypothesis: Professor Sabbagh argues how federal US policies revolve more around indirect and implicit affirmative action, due to being a liberal democracy.
• Research Design: Professor Sabbagh utilizes qualitative research such as content analysis of law literature and analyzing cases of affirmative action policies and reforms in public universities of the United States. His independent variable would be the American liberal values in law and governance while the dependent variable would be the number of indirect affirmative action policies in the United States.
• Findings: Professor Sabbagh argues that despite the effects of residential and school segregation, inclusive policies that have indirect and/or implicit elements of affirmative action are seen as long-term methodologies of promoting and upholding ethnoracial diversity of the United States in most public universities like UT Austin.