Racial (Dis)enfranchisement and (De)democratization: A Case Study of the US

• In Event: Democracy and Identity Politics

Abstract

Is racial (dis)enfranchisement a distinct act of (de)democratization? While studies of political development recognize the pivotal role of (dis)enfranchisement in historical (de)democratization, this act remains surprisingly under-theorized, often constrained to class-based enfranchisement. This paper aims to carve out a distinct analytical space for the concept of racial (dis)enfranchisement and empirically apply it to understand the processes of (de)democratization in the United States. Because racial enfranchisement often involves the extension of voting rights from a majority to a minority of the population, neither its determinants nor its consequences can be understood with frameworks developed to understand class-based extensions of the franchise from a minority to a majority (true for both manhood suffrage and to an extent also women’s suffrage). Drawing on scholarship on notions of peoplehood, identity, and belonging this paper develops a framework for understanding racial enfranchisement as both a distinct act of democratization and a novel analytical category with potentially profound implications for the basic concepts, focus, and assumptions of the democratization literature. This framework emphasizes ideational rather than material factors in the decision to expand the franchise. Specifically, racial enfranchisement is understood as the result of a political project to reconstitute the identity of the political community. We apply this framework to the case of the United States at two critical historical junctures: The Progressive Era and the complicity of major Republican players in the disenfranchisement of American Blacks in the Solid South, a case of racial disenfranchisement, and the period between the 1930s and 1960s marked by the transformation of the Democratic Party from a staunched advocate of racial exclusion and suppression to the primary champion of a race reform, resulting with the enfranchisement of Blacks through the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The former was marked by the entrenchment of a racially-authoritarian regime despite the conducive electoral, structural, and political circumstances to the contrary whereas the latter saw an expansion of racial enfranchisement despite the absence of any clear electoral return and presence of acute electoral risks for the Democrats as well as the existence of significant coalitions favoring racial exclusion. By critically examining the role of racial (dis)enfranchisement in American political development, this paper introduces a novel analytical category to the democratization literature. It seeks to not only offers empirical advantages in understanding race-based incorporation but also provides theoretical benefits in refining our conceptualization and measurement of democracy while contributing to a deeper understanding of (de)democratization processes in the United States from the Progressive Era to the mid-1960s.

Author

• Fatih Umit Cetin, Umass Amherst