Southern economic development and party liberalization did not cause the exodus
Evidence
Using a combination of survey and media data we find corroborating evidence for the role of Democratic Civil Rights initiatives in explaining white Southern defection from the Democratic Party in the late 1940s through early 1950s. For neither the 1960s nor this earlier period do these data sources offer any support for the most common alternative hypotheses for Southern derailment: the liberalization of the Democratic Party, Southern economic development or other secular, coincident trends. — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 978
Categorization
- XREF: Directly bears on the threatened-privilege thesis: if only race — not economics or ideology — predicts sorting, this supports racism-as-identity rather than general status-threat mobilization across non-racial axes. — connects to: Economic development cannot explain Southern Democratic dealignment — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 798; Economic class, not racial anger, fails to explain Southern Democratic defection. — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 940; Income and urbanization controls barely shrink the Southern Democratic-dealignment effect — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1130 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Economic development cannot explain Southern Democratic dealignment
#corroborates(0.95) — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 798 - Income and urbanization controls barely shrink the Southern Democratic-dealignment effect
#corroborates(0.95) — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1130 - Economic class, not racial anger, fails to explain Southern Democratic defection.
#corroborates(0.90) — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 940 - Southern economic catch-up could independently explain realignment away from Democrats.
#contradicts(0.90) — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 43