Administrative policy as symbol system - Political conflict and the socialconstruction of identity

Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity: formerly known as Statistical Policy Directive 15, is a clas sification system that governs the U.S. government's collection and present ation of data on race and ethnicity. The directive underwent a public evalu ation between 1993 and 1997 to determine whether the racial and ethnic grou p categories should be revised. This article links theories of the role of the stale in the social order and the social construction of identity to ex plain how conflictual political processes modify administrative policy. Two narratives on the debates over the reclassification of "Native Hawaiians" and the addition of a "multiracial" category illustrate recent political co nflicts over group identifies established by stare agencies. The author arg ues that the main explanation for administrative policy changes was the res ponsiveness of slate agencies to political demands of significantly mobiliz ed groups with claims to state resources.