Deep roots : how slavery still shapes Southern politics / Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, Maya Sen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Acharya, Avidit, author.

Blackwell, Matthew, author.

Sen, Maya, author.

Series:

Princeton studies in political behavior.

Princeton Studies in Political Behavior

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Political aspects--Southern States.

Slavery.

Slavery--Political aspects--United States.

Southern States--Politics and government--1951-.

Southern States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 280 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Summary:

The lasting effects of slavery on contemporary political attitudes in the American SouthDespite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in other parts of the country. Why haven't these sentiments evolved or changed? Deep Roots shows that the entrenched political and racial views of contemporary white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history, which continues to shape economic, political, and social spheres. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery-compared to areas that were not-are more racially hostile and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress. Highlighting the connection between historical institutions and contemporary political attitudes, the authors explore the period following the Civil War when elite whites in former bastions of slavery had political and economic incentives to encourage the development of anti-black laws and practices. Deep Roots shows that these forces created a local political culture steeped in racial prejudice, and that these viewpoints have been passed down over generations, from parents to children and via communities, through a process called behavioral path dependence. While legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act made huge strides in increasing economic opportunity and reducing educational disparities, southern slavery has had a profound, lasting, and self-reinforcing influence on regional and national politics that can still be felt today.A groundbreaking look at the ways institutions of the past continue to sway attitudes of the present, Deep Roots demonstrates how social beliefs persist long after the formal policies that created those beliefs have been eradicated.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Tables

Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A Theory of Behavioral Path Dependence

Slavery's contemporary effects

How slavery predicts white political attitudes today

An alternative account: Contemporary Demographics and Racial Threat

The origins of divergence

Antebellum politics of slavery and race in the South

Emancipation as a critical juncture and the timing of divergence

Mechanisms of persistence and decay

Persistence and the mechanisms of reproduction

Interventions and attenuation

Conclusion: What lessons can we draw from Southern slavery?

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-271) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781400889976

1400889979

OCLC:

1032303159