Stolen Representation

Nyhet

Black Disfranchisement and State Legislative Politics in the American South

Häftad, Engelska, 2025

Av Michael P. Olson, Michael P. (Washington University in St. Louis) Olson

379 kr

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In the decades after Reconstruction, African Americans were systematically removed from the electorate in the American South using tools such as poll taxes and literacy tests. Stolen Representation draws on significant amounts of new historical data to explore how these tools of Black disfranchisement shaped state legislative politics in the American South. The book draws on contemporary scholarship to develop theoretical arguments for how disfranchisement plausibly affected roll-call voting, committee assignments, and policymaking activity in southern state legislatures, and uses rich data on each of these areas to demonstrate disfranchisement's profound effects. By analyzing state legislative data and drawing on historical sources to help characterize the nature of politics in each state in the period around disfranchisement, Olson offers a nuanced, context-driven exploration of disfranchisement's effects, making a major contribution to our understanding of the relationship between racial discrimination at the ballot box and public policymaking in the United States.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-12-31
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieCambridge Studies in American Legislatures
Antal sidor290
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009700238

Tillhör följande kategorier

1. Introduction; 2. Black disfranchisement and legislative politics; 3. State legislative politics in the post-reconstructive South; 4. Destroying the Republican Party: Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee; 5. Early Deep South disfranchisement: Mississippi and South Carolina; 6. Post-populism disfranchisement: Alabama and Louisana; 7. Limited effects: Arkansas, Virginia, Georgia, and Kentucky; 8. Conclusion.

'Scholars have long understood that Jim Crow robbed Black Americans of the vote, but only with Michael Olson's Stolen Representation have the costs to legislative activity and lawmaking become systematically clear. With painstaking and detailed research showing that disfranchisement played out differently across southern states, Olson's revolutionary study reshapes our understanding of southern politics, democratic backsliding, and American political development.' Daniel Carpenter, Harvard University