Control over suffrage was the key lever of political power

Evidence

Between 1790 and 1847, state constitutions became more diverse and diffuse. Some trends were peculiar to one state, or one group of states; some were common to the country as a whole. Apportionment and suffrage were general issues. Any change in the electoral map or in the right to vote meant a reallocation of political power. Who voted determined who was on top; suffrage was a crucial bottleneck of law. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 651

Categorization

• XREF: Suffrage as a bottleneck of power connects to the immodesty/moral-panic thread and to sumptuary law questions about who controls status. — connects to: Bourgeois parliamentary expansion co-existed with periodic repression and suffrage curbs — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1952; Suffrage serves as a moral defense against anticapitalist resentment of privilege — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 815; Separate electorates aimed to guarantee Untouchables independent political leverage against numeric and physical domination — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1303 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Bourgeois parliamentary expansion co-existed with periodic repression and suffrage curbs #exemplifies (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1952
• Separate electorates aimed to guarantee Untouchables independent political leverage against numeric and physical domination #exemplifies (0.80) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1303
• Suffrage serves as a moral defense against anticapitalist resentment of privilege #expands (0.78) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 815