How has the arrival of new racial and ethnic groups affected the political gains of long-standing minorities in the United States? Over the past four decades, the United States has experienced the largest influx of immigrants in its history. Not only has the ratio of European to non-European newcomers changed, but recent arrivals are coming from the Asian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, South America, and other regions which have not previously supplied many immigrants to the United States. In this timely study, a team of political scientists examines how the arrival of these newcomers has affected the efforts of long-standing minority groups - Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Pacific Americans - to gain equality through greater political representation and power. The authors predict that, for some time to come, the United States will function as a complex multiracial hierarchy, rather than as a genuine democracy.