Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T18:03:55.586Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democratization, De Facto Power, and Taxation: Evidence from Military Occupation during Reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2019

Mario L. Chacón  and
Jeffrey L. Jensen
Get access

Abstract

How important is the enforcement of political rights in new democracies? The authors use the enfranchisement of the emancipated slaves following the American Civil War to study this question. Critical to their strategy, black suffrage was externally enforced by the United States Army in ten Southern states during Reconstruction. The authors employ a triple-difference model to estimate the joint effect of enfranchisement and its enforcement on taxation. They find that counties with greater black-population shares that were occupied by the military levied higher taxes compared to similar nonoccupied counties. These counties later experienced a comparatively greater decline in taxation after the troops were withdrawn. The authors also demonstrate that in occupied counties, black politicians were more likely to be elected and political murders by white supremacist groups occurred less frequently. The findings provide evidence on the key role of federal troops in limiting elite capture by force during this period.

Keywords

democratizationelitesmilitary occupationredistribution
Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 1 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, Naidu, Suresh, Restrepo, Pascual, and Robinson, James. 2015. “Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality.” In Atkinson, Anthony and Bourguignon, Francois, eds., Handbook of Income Distribution, vol. 2B. Amsterdam, Holland: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James. 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James. 2008. “Persistence of Power, Elites, and Institutions.” American Economic Review 98, no. 1: 267–93. doi: 10.1257/aer.98.1.267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acharya, Avidid, Blackwell, Matthew, and Sen, Maya. 2016. “The Political Legacy of American Slavery.” Journal of Politics 78, no. 3: 621–41. doi: 10.1086/686631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aidt, Toke S., and Peter, S. Jensen. 2009. “Tax Structure, Size of Government, and the Extension of the Voting Franchise in Western Europe, 1860–1938.” International Tax and Public Finance 16, no. 3: 362–94. doi: 10.1007/s10797-008-9069-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albertus, Michael, and Menaldo, Victor. 2014. “Gaming Democracy: Elite Dominance during Transition and the Prospects for Redistribution.” British Journal of Political Science 44, no. 3: 575–603. doi: 10.1017/S0007123413000124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansell, Ben W., and David, J. Samuels. 2014. Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, Eli, Shapiro, Jacob, and Felter, Joseph. 2011. “Can Hearts and Minds be Bought? The Economics of Counterinsurgency in Iraq.” Journal of Political Economy 119, no. 4: 766–819. doi: 10.1086/661983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertocchi, Graziella, and Dimico, Arcangelo. 2017. “De Jure and De Facto Determinants of Power: Evidence from Mississippi.” Constitutional Political Economy 28, no. 4, 321–45. doi: 10.1007/s10602-017-9239-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonica, Adam, McCarty, Nolan, Keith, T. Poole, and Rosenthal, Howard. 2013. “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 3: 103–23. doi: 10.1257/jep.27.3.103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, Mark L. 2015. The Army and Reconstruction, 1865–1877. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army.Google Scholar
Cascio, Elizabeth U., and Washington, Ebonya. 2013. “Valuing the Vote: The Redistribution of Voting Rights and State Funds Following the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 129, no. 1: 379–433. doi: 10.1093/qje/qjt028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chacón, Mario L., and Jeffrey, L. Jensen. 2019a. “Replication data for: Democratization, De Facto Power, and Taxation: Evidence from Military Occupation during Reconstruction.” Harvard Dataverse, V1. doi: 10.7910/DVN/ULXRHT.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chacón, Mario L., and Jeffrey, L. Jensen. 2019b. “Supplementary material for: Democratization, De Facto Power, and Taxation: Evidence from Military Occupation during Reconstruction.” doi: 10.1017/S0043887119000157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, David M. 1987. Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, Darin, Nguyen, Mai, and Sexton, Renard. 2019. “Strategic Violence during Democratization: Evidence from Myanmar.” World Politics 71, no. 2 (April), 332–66. doi: 10.1017/S0043887118000308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clubb, Jerome M., William, H. Flanigan, and Nancy, H. Zingale. 2006. Electoral Data for Counties in the United States: Presidential and Congressional Races, 1840–1972. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. doi: 10.3886/ICPSR08611.v1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Current, Richard Nelson. 1988. Those Terrible Carpetbaggers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Department of the Interior Census Office. 1895. Report of Wealth, Debt, and Taxation at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Part II. Valuation and Taxation. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Downs, Gregory P. 2015. After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Gregory P., and Nesbit, Scott. 2015. Mapping Occupation: Force, Freedom, and the Army in Reconstruction. At http://mappingoccupation.org, accessed January 2017.Google Scholar
Dubin, Michael J. 2007. Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures: A Year by Year Summary, 1796–2006. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company.Google Scholar
Dubin, Michael J. 2010. United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1861–1911: The Official Results by State and County. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company.Google Scholar
Dupont, Brandon, and Joshua, L. Rosenbloom. 2018. “The Economic Origins of the Postwar Southern Elite.” Explorations in Economic History 68, April: 119–31. doi: 10.1016/j.eeh.2017.09.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelstein, David M. 2004. “Occupational Hazards: Why Military Occupations Succeed or Fail.” International Security 29, no. 1: 49–91. At www.jstor.org/stable/4137547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, Michael W. 2007. Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South. Chicago, Ill.: Ivan R. Dee.Google Scholar
Fleming, Walter L. 1905. Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foner, Eric. 1993. Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foner, Eric. 2011. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. New York, N.Y.: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Hagen, Ryan, Makovi, Kinga, and Bearman, Peter. 2013. “The Influence of Political Dynamics on Southern Lynch Mob Formation and Lethality.” Social Forces 92, no. 2: 757–87. doi: 10.1093/sf/sot093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollander, Jacob. 1900. Studies in State Taxation, with Particular Reference to the Southern States (1900). Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Hume, Richard L., and Jerry, B. Gough. 2008. Blacks, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags: The Constitutional Conventions of Radical Reconstruction. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Husted, Thomas A., and Lawrence, W. Kenny. 1997. “The Effect of the Expansion of the Voting Franchise on the Size of Government.” Journal of Political Economy 105, no. 1: 54–82. At www.jstor.org/stable/2138871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. 1984. Southern Politics in State and Nation. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter H. 2004. Growing Public: Volume 1, The Story: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Logan, Trevon D. 2018. “Do Black Politicians Matter?” NBER Working Paper no. 24190. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research. At https://www.nber.org/papers/w24190, accessed February 12, 2019.Google Scholar
Lott, John R. Jr., and Lawrence, W. Kenny. 1999. “Did Women’s Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?” Journal of Political Economy 107, no. 6, 1163–98. doi: 10.1086/250093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mares, Isabela, and Queralt, Didac. 2015. “The Non-Democratic Origins of Income Taxation.” Comparative Political Studies 48, no. 14: 1974–2009. doi: 10.1177/0010414015592646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez-Bravo, Monica. 2014. “The Role of Local Officials in New Democracies: Evidence from Indonesia.” American Economic Review 104, no. 4: 1244–87. doi: 10.1257/aer.104.4.1244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez-Bravo, Monica, Mukherjee, Priya, and Stegmann, Andreas. 2017. “The Non-Democratic Roots of Elite Capture: Evidence from Soeharto Mayors in Indonesia.” Econometrica 85, no. 6: 1991–2010. doi: 10.3982/ECTA14125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzer, Allen H., and Scott, F. Richard. 1981. “A Rational Theory of the Size of Government.” Journal of Political Economy 89, no. 5: 914–27. At www.jstor.org/stable/1830813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naidu, Suresh. 2012. “Suffrage, Schooling, and Sorting in the Post-Bellum US South.” NBER Working Paper no. 18129. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research. At https://www.nber.org/papers/w18129, accessed February 12, 2019.Google Scholar
Ransom, Roger L., and Sutch, Richard. 2001. One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, John. 1972. “Percent Black and Lynching: A Test of Blalock’s Theory.” Social Forces 50, no. 3: 356–60. doi: 10.2307/2577039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RJSC. 1872. Report of the United States Congress Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. Report no. 41, part 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Rogowski, Jon C. 2018. “Reconstruction and the State: The Political and Economic Consequences of the Freedmen’s Bureau.” At https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/rogowski/files/freedmens_bureau_0.pdf, accessed February 12, 2019.Google Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth, and Stasavage, David. 2010. “The Conscription of Wealth: Mass Warfare and the Demand for Progressive Taxation.” International Organization 64, no. 4: 529–61. doi: 10.1017/S0020818310000226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth, and Stasavage, David. 2017. “Wealth Inequality and Democracy.” Annual Review of Political Science 20, 451–68. doi: 10.1146/annurev-polisci-061014-101840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sefton, James E. 1980. The United States Army and Reconstruction, 1865–1877. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Seligman, Edwin R. A. 1969. Essays in Taxation, 10th rev. ed. New York, N.Y.: Augustus M. Kelley.Google Scholar
Stewart, Megan, and Kitchens, Karin. 2018. “Social Transformation and Violence: Evidence from US Reconstruction.” Manuscript. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3223825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart, and Beck, E. M.. 1995. A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882–1930. Champaign, Ill: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
United States War Department. 1868. Annual Report of the Secretary of War, vol. I. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
United States War Department. 1870. Annual Report of the Secretary of War. Washington, D.C: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Wallis, John. 2000. “American Government Finance in the Long Run: 1790 to 1990.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14, no. 1: 61–82. doi: 0.1257/jep.14.1.61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, Hanes Jr., Sherman, C. Puckett, and Donald, R. Jr, Deskins. 2012. The African-American Electorate: A Statistical History. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Ziblatt, Daniel. 2008. “Does Landholding Inequality Block Democratization? A Test of the ‘Bread and Democracy’ Thesis and the Case of Prussia.” World Politics 60, no. 4 (July): 610–41. doi: 10.1353/wp.0.0021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Chacón and Jensen supplementary material

Chacón and Jensen supplementary material

Download Chacón and Jensen supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 876.4 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Chacón and Jensen Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ULXRHT
Link