The End of Federal Patronage and Its Effect on Southern GOP Organizations

• In Event: Parties and American Political Development

Abstract

During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the Republican Party in the South was a skeleton organization that was unable to compete electorally due to the disfranchisement of black voters. Yet, these Southern GOP organizations survived because of their access to federal (executive) patronage, making their control a (potentially) lucrative goal in a region that the Democrats firmly controlled. As a result, significant and regular infighting occurred over the control of these GOP organizations during this period. With the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, however, Republicans would lose control of the White House for the next 20 years — and thus also lost their ability to dole out federal patronage. In this paper, we explore how the make-up of the Republican Party in the South changed after losing access to executive patronage. Specifically, we assess whether the types of Republicans who sought control of Southern organizations during this new era of Democratic presidential control changed in terms of race, education, and class.

Authors

• Boris Heersink, Fordham University

• Jeffery A. Jenkins, University of Southern California

• Nicholas G. Napolio, University of Southern California