Slavery, Political Competition, and Economic Development

• In Event: New Perspectives on Race and American Political Development

Abstract

While existing studies show that the American slavery has persistent effects on present-day economic development, we know little about how slavery interacts with political factors to impact present-day economic development. We argue that political competition lowers economic development because politically stable legislatures produce policies helpful to economic development. However, in places that oppress minorities, political competition encourages economic development because voice of minorities is represented to improve their conditions. Using historical Census and election data, we find that while political competition undermines economic development in the counties outside of the southern states, it accelerates economic development in the southern counties before the southern realignment, particularly counties with high proportion of slave populations. We also find that this relationship in southern counties is reversed after the civil rights movement. These findings suggest that the impacts of political competition on economic development depend on the characteristics of competition.

Authors

• Byengseon Bae, Claremont Graduate University

• Melissa Ziegler Rogers, Claremont Graduate University