Political participation in a violent society: The impact of lynching on voter turnout in the post-Reconstruction South

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jones, Daniel B.; Troesken, Werner; Walsh, Randall
• 署名单位: University of South Carolina System; University of South Carolina Columbia; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.08.001
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 29-46
• 关键词: violence; Political Participation; Lynching; american south

摘要

How does violence against a group affect political participation? In theory, the targeted group may either become politically mobilized or may become discouraged and withdraw from political participation. To address this question, we assess the impact of lynchings on differential rates of black turnout in the post-Reconstruction American South. We first provide evidence that lynchings are not politically motivated. We then show that, even though lynchings were not politically motivated, exposure to lynching reduced local black voter turnout by roughly 2.5 percentage points. A series of specification tests suggest this relationship can be interpreted as causal.