Patronage Politics and the Development of the Welfare State: Confederate Pensions in the American South

Shari Eli and Laura Salisbury

No 20829, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Beginning in the 1880s, southern states introduced pensions for Confederate veterans and widows. They continued to expand these programs through the 1920s, while states outside the region were introducing cash transfer programs for workers, poor mothers, and the elderly. Using legislative documents, application records for Confederate pensions, and county-level census and electoral data, we argue that political considerations guided the enactment and distribution of these pensions. We show that Confederate pensions programs were introduced and funded during years in which Democratic gubernatorial candidates were threatened at the ballot box. Moreover, we offer evidence that pensions were disbursed to counties in which these candidates had lost ground to candidates from alternative parties.

JEL-codes: H0 I38 N0 N41 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cdm, nep-his and nep-pol
Note: DAE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Eli, Shari & Salisbury, Laura, 2016. "Patronage Politics and the Development of the Welfare State: Confederate Pensions in the American South," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(04), pages 1078-1112, December.

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