Ballots instead of Bullets? The effect of the Voting Rights Act on political violence

Jean Lacroix

No 20-007, Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: The extension of voting rights epitomizes the construction of modern democracies. This paper empirically investigates the effect of such an enfranchisement on political violence in the context of the US Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, which forbade discrimination in voting. The formula the VRA used to determine the counties it applied to generated both geographic and temporal local discontinuities in enfranchisement. This paper's empirical strategy takes advantage of these features by comparing the evolution of political violence in geographically close covered and non covered counties. Difference-indifferences estimates indicate that VRA coverage halved the incidence and the onset of political violence. Additional empirical evidence implies that voting became the new institutionalized way to state political preferences. Indeed, VRA coverage mostly decreasedelectoral and small-scale strategic violence. This result is not explained by disaggrievement. Extensions suggest that new strategies of political action may explain a decrease in violence after enfranchisement.

Keywords: Political violence; Enfranchisement; Civil rights movement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 H89 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-his and nep-pol
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Related works:
Journal Article: Ballots Instead of Bullets? The Effect of the Voting Rights Act on Political Violence (2023)
Working Paper: Ballots Instead of Bullets? The Effect of the Voting Rights Act on Political Violence (2023)
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