Race and Political Boundaries in American Democracy

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Local political boundaries convey enormous power in the United States, making them the subject of fierce political contestation. How local political boundaries are drawn determines the scope of local democracy, the diversity of local political communities, and the capacity of local governments. With their power over land use, local governments can seek to ensure that the essential features of localities remain stable over time. Boundaries have served to create and perpetuate racial segregation that leaves African Americans in particular with access to weaker public resources even as they shield affluent whites from costs associated with redistribution. The papers in this panel examine conflicts related to political boundaries: efforts to create new boundaries and efforts to challenge the prerogatives that derive from existing boundaries. Together, they show how racial segregation and segmented public resources are reproduced over time even fifty years after the Fair Housing Act. The papers explore public opinion, policy tools, and the political rhetoric associated with efforts to create and defend boundaries that ensure racial segregation.

Sub Unit

• Division 30: Urban and Local Politics

Individual Presentations

• Cityhood by “Deannexation”: Race and the Referendum on Eagles Landing - Andra Gillespie, Emory University

• Reshaping Metropolitan Colorlines: Education and Housing Policy since the 1970s - Kimberley S. Johnson, New York University

• Democracy, Redistribution and Local Political Boundaries - Margaret Weir, Brown University

Chair

• Desmond King University of Oxford

Discussant

• Robert C. Lieberman Johns Hopkins University