Economic and political self-interest jointly drove Southern anti-union law

Evidence

Of course, restrictive labor laws served purposes beyond political entrenchment. Union activity in the South threatened entrenched economic interests as directly as it threatened entrenched political leaders. But the dual purpose of the Southern Democratic approach to labor policy does not diminish its self-interested political dynamic. As George Norris Green described Texas Democratic politics during this era, the Party establishment “not only feared the economic disadvantages of unionism for Dixie’s corporations, but also opposed Northern labor’s encroachments in the high councils of the Democratic Party.” — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 227

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth probing: does an ideology stick better when it serves two independent constituencies (economic and political) at once rather than one?
• XREF: connects to: Southern Democrats used labor law to block CIO-driven voter realignment — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 211; Targeted Southern Democrats carried anti-union lawmaking to Congress and HUAC — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 226; Racism and self-interest aligned white labor against Black workers across all labor factions — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 949 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Reconstruction-era racism was deliberately engineered by the weakened southern ruling class #corroborates (0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1087
• Racism and self-interest aligned white labor against Black workers across all labor factions #expands (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 949
• Neoliberal ideas reframed anti-union business positions as good judgment rather than reactionary politics #qualifies (0.74) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1474
• Intergroup discrimination and violence stem from political self-interest rather than hostility #qualifies (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 640
• Austrian economics redirected antitrust critique from firm monopoly to state and union restrictions #qualifies (0.71) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 280