Voting Rights, Deindustrialization, and Republican Ascendancy in the South

Gavin Wright

No inetwp135, Working Papers Series from Institute for New Economic Thinking

Abstract: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 revolutionized politics in the American South. These changes also had economic consequences, generating gains for white as well as Black southerners. Contrary to the widespread belief that the region turned Republican in direct response to the Civil Rights Revolution, expanded voting rights led to twenty-five years of competitive two-party politics, featuring strong biracial coalitions in the Democratic Party. These coalitions remained competitive in most states until the Republican Revolution of the 1990s. This abrupt rightward shift had many causes, but critical for southern voters were the trade liberalization measures of 1994, specifically NAFTA and the phase-out of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement which had protected the textiles and apparel industries for decades. The consequences of Republican state regimes have been severe, including intensified racial polarization, loss of support for public schools and higher education, and harsh policies toward low-income populations.

Keywords: African Americans; American South; deindustrialization; voting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J15 N32 N92 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61 pages
Date: 2020-09-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:thk:wpaper:inetwp135

DOI: 10.36687/inetwp135

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