Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T19:59:05.269Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Political Economy of Voting Rights Enforcement in America's Gilded Age: Electoral College Competition, Partisan Commitment, and the Federal Election Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Scott C. James  and
Brian L. Lawson
Scott C. James
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Brian L. Lawson
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We develop a model of electoral college competition and apply it to the transformation of nineteenth-century voting rights enforcement. The Federal Election Law (1872–92) was born of an effort to secure political power for southern blacks, yet it developed into an expansive machinery to police federal elections in northern cities. We argue that the Reconstruction commitment to black suffrage gradually succumbed to the competitive structure of Gilded Age presidential elections, crowded out by a growing preoccupation with registration and voter fraud in the volatile swing states that typically determined electoral college victory. More broadly, we view the electoral college as a critical force in shaping American political development. With its structured system of competition for doubtful states and pivotal groups, the electoral college injects a unique logic into the dynamics of national politics.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 93 , Issue 1 , March 1999 , pp. 115 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Books and Periodicals

Amar, Akhil Reed. 1995. “A Constitutional Accident Waiting to Happen.” Constitutional Commentary 12(Summer):143–5.Google Scholar
Argersinger, Peter H. 1992. Structure, Process, and Party: Essays in American Political History. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Ball, William J., and Leuthold, David A.. 1991. “Estimating the Likelihood of an Unpopular Verdict in the Electoral College.” Public Choice 70(05):215–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel, and Katz, Jonathan N.. 1995. “What to Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series–Cross-Section Data in Comparative Politics.” American Political Science Review 89(09):634–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bensel, Richard Franklin. 1984. Sectionalism and American Political Development. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Berns, Walter. 1996. “Third Party Candidates Face a High Hurdle in the Electoral College.” American Enterprise 7(January-02): 48.Google Scholar
Berthoud, John E. 1997. “The Electoral Lock Thesis: The Weighting Bias Component.” PS: Political Science & Politics 30(06):189.Google Scholar
Boyd, T. B., ed. 1884. The Blaine and Logan Campaign of 1884. Chicago: J. L. Regan.Google Scholar
Brams, Steven J. 1978. The Presidential Election Game. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Burke, Albie. 1968. “Federal Regulation of Congressional Elections in Northern Cities, 1871–1894.” Ph.D. diss. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean. 1955. Presidential Ballots: 1836–1892. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean. 1965. “The Changing Shape of the American Political Universe.” American Political Science Review 59(03):7–28.Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean. 1974a. “Rejoinder to ‘Comment’ by Philip Converse and Jerrold Rusk.” American Political Science Review 68(09): 1050–7.Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean. 1974b. “Theory and Voting Research: Some Reflections on Converse's ‘Change in the American Electorate.’” American Political Science Review 68(09):1002–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1985. Guide to U.S. Elections, 2d ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Congressional Record. 1880. 46th Cong., 2d sess., vol. 10, pt. 5.Google Scholar
Congressional Record. 1893. 53rd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 25, pt. 2.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1972. “Change in the American Electorate.” In The Human Meaning of Social Change, ed. Campbell, Angus and Converse, Philip E.. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Pp. 263–337.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1974. “Comment on Burnham's ‘Theory and Voting Research.’” American Political Science Review 68(09):1024–7.Google Scholar
Coolidge, Mary Roberts. 1909. Chinese Immigration. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Crofts, Daniel Wallace. 1970. “The Blair Bill and the Election Bill: The Congressional Aftermath to Reconstruction.” Ph.D. diss. Yale University.Google Scholar
DeSantis, Vincent P. 1959. Republicans Face the Southern Question: The New Departure Years, 1877–1897. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Donald, David Herbert. 1995. Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Foner, Eric. 1988. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Frymer, Paul. N.d. Uneasy Alliances: Race and Party Competition in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 1994. “A Chapter in the History of American Party Ideology: The Nineteenth Century Democratic Party (1828–1892).” Polity 26(Summer):729–68.Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 1997. “Party Ideology in America: The National Republican Chapter, 1828–1924.” Studies in American Political Development 11(Spring):44–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillette, William. 1965. The Right to Vote: Politics and the Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillette, William. 1979. Retreat from Reconstruction, 1869–1879. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Robert Michael. 1976. “A Free Ballot and a Fair Count: The Justice Department and the Enforcement of Voting Rights in the South, 1877–1893.” Ph.D. diss. Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Hinich, Melvin J., and Ordeshook, Peter C.. 1974. “The Electoral College: Spatial Analysis.” Political Methodology 1(Summer):1–29.Google Scholar
Hirshson, Stanley P. 1962. Farewell to the Bloody Shirt: Northern Republicans and the Southern Negro, 1877–1893. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Matthew M. 1996. “The Illegitimate President: Minority Vote Dilution and the Electoral College.” Yale Law Journal 105(01):935–1021.Google Scholar
Hoogenboom, Ari. 1995. Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Horn, Robert. 1942. “National Control of Congressional Elections.” Ph.D. diss. Princeton University.Google Scholar
Huber, P. J. 1967. “The Behavior of Maximum Likelihood Estimates under Non-standard Conditions.” Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability 1(06):221–33.Google Scholar
James, Scott C. 1992. “A Party System Perspective on the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887: The Democracy, Coalition-Building and the Politics of Coalition Maintenance.” Studies in American Political Development 6(Spring):163–200.Google Scholar
James, Scott C. 1995. “A Theory of Presidential Commitment and Opportunism: Swing States, Pivotal Groups and Civil Rights under Truman and Clinton.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
James, Scott C. 1996. “Building a Democratic Majority: The Progressive Party Vote and the FTC.” Studies in American Political Development 9(Fall):331–85.Google Scholar
James, Scott C. N.d. Presidents, Parties, and the State: Electoral College Competition, Party Leadership and Democratic Regulatory Choice, 1884–1836. New York: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Kaczoroski, Robert J. 1985. The Politics of Judicial Interpretation: The Federal Courts, Department of Justice and Civil Rights, 1866–1876. New York: Oceana.Google Scholar
Keller, Morton. 1977. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul, and Baker, Stephen C.. 1980. “The Impact of Registration Requirements on Electoral Turnout, 1900–1916.” Journal of Political and Military Sociology 8(Fall):205–26.Google Scholar
Kousser, J. Morgan. 1974. The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880–1910. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kousser, J. Morgan. 1992. “The Voting Rights Act and the Two Reconstructions.” In Controversies in Minority Voting: The Voting Rights Act in Perspective, ed., Grofman, Bernard and Davidson, Chandler. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Pp. 135–76.Google Scholar
Longley, Lawrence D., and Dana, James D.. 1992. “The Biases of the Electoral College in the 1990s.” Polity 25(Fall):123–45.Google Scholar
McCormick, Richard L. 1986. The Party Period and Public Policy: American Politics from the Age of Jackson to the Progressive Era. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McGaughey, Elizabeth P. 1993. “Democracy at Risk: The Dangerous Flaws in the Electoral College.” Policy Review 63(Winter):79–81.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. Wayne. 1969. From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Nation. 1880. 05 27. P. 393.Google Scholar
Orren, Karen. N.d. “Benjamin Harrison.” In A Readers' Guide to the Presidency ed., Brinkley, Alan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Rusk, Jerrold G. 1970. “The Effect of the Australian Ballot Reform on Split-Ticket Voting, 1876–1908.” American Political Science Review 64(09):1220–38.Google Scholar
Rusk, Jerrold G. 1974. “Comment: The American Electoral Universe: Speculation and Evidence.” American Political Science Review 68(09):1028–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandmeyer, Elmer Clarence. 1939. The Anti-Chinese Movement in California. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Satz, Deborah, and Ferejohn, John. 1994. “Rational Choice and Social Theory.” Journal of Philosophy 91(02):71–87.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. 1985. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968, vol. 4. New York: Chelsea House.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin. 1995. “Party, Bureaucracy, and Political Change in the United States.” In Political Parties and the State: The American Historical Experience. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 101–68.Google Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen. 1982. Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capabilities, 1877–1920. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sitkoff, Harvard. 1971. “Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in America.” Journal of Southern History 37(08):597–616.Google Scholar
Stewart, Charles III. 1989. Budget Reform Politics: The Design of the Appropriations Process in the House of Representatives. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stewart, Charles III, and Weingast, Barry R.. 1992. “Stacking the Senate, Changing the Nation: Republican Rotten Boroughs, Statehood Politics, and American Political Development.” Studies in American Political Development 6(Fall):223–71.Google Scholar
Summers, Mark Wahlgren. 1993. The Era of Good Stealings. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swinney, Everette. 1966. “Suppressing the Ku Klux Klan: The Enforcement of the Reconstruction Amendments.” Ph.D. diss. University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1890. Compendia of the 9th–11th U.S. Census. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1976. The Statistical History of the United States: From Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, House. 1885. Supervisors and Deputy Marshals at Elections: Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, 48th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Exec. Doc. 246.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Senate. 1877. Report of the Attorney General. 44th Cong., 2d sess., S. Exec. Doc. 6, pt. 2.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Senate. 1880. Alleged Fraud in the Late Elections, 46th Cong., 3rd sess., S. Rept. 916.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Justice. 1872–1894. Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Uslander, Eric M. 1973. “Pivotal States in the Electoral College: An Empirical Analysis.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 219(11 9):61–76.Google Scholar
Uslander, Eric M. 1976. “Spatial Models of the Electoral College: Distribution Assumptions and Biases.” Political Methodology 3(Summer):335–81.Google Scholar
Valelly, Richard M. 1993. “Party, Coercion, and Inclusion: the Two Reconstructions of the South's Electoral Politics.” Politics & Society 21(03):37–67.Google Scholar
Valelly, Richard M. 1995. “National Parties and Racial Disenfranchisement.” In Classifying by Race, ed. Peterson, Paul E.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 188–216.Google Scholar
Wang, Xi. 1993. “Black Suffrage and Northern Republicans, 1865–1891.” Ph.D. diss. Columbia University.Google Scholar
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. 1994. Candidate and Constituency Statistics of Elections in the United States, 1788–1990 [computer file] (Study #7757). 5th ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor].Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.