Incomplete Democratization: Black Political Power and Municipal Institutions

• In Event: Race, State, and Power in Comparative and Historical Perspective

Abstract

In the US federal system, democratic institutions vary considerably across states and localities, with much research pointing to the ways in which racial conflict have shaped battles over these institutions. We study whether rising Black power in electoral politics during the second-half of the 20th century led incumbent political coalitions to change local institutions to "insulate" policymakers and bureaucracies from Black electorates. Institutional insulation in cities offers a partial explanation for why the Great Migration and Voting Rights Act did not dismantle or prevent institutional racism in local policy areas such as policing. Our paper draws on an original dataset of alterations to municipal institutions such as city charters to posit whether and to what extent rising black militancy and related demographic change in effect served to move democratic control of policing further out of reach of these changing electorates. The paper may help excavate the historical roots of contemporary obstacles to police reform and thus of contemporary roots of repressive, racist policing in America's cities.

Authors

• Daniel F. Ziblatt, Harvard University

• Robert Mickey, University of Michigan

• Jake M Grumbach, UC Berkeley