1. The Electoral Impact of Newly Enfranchised Groups: The Case of Women’s Suffrage in the United States
- Author:
- Mona Morgan-Collins
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
- Abstract:
- Did the expansion of women’s suffrage make a dent in electoral politics? I theorize that while women’s suffrage has the potential to sway electoral tides in favor of the newly enfranchised, such effects are conditional on the strength of a social movement that represents their interests. A social movement defines the groups’ shared interests and helps to create an active, informed and mobilized pool of voters that can take electoral action to foster common policy goals. In testing this argument, I use evidence from the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in the United States and employ a difference in difference approach that exploits the heterogeneity in the proportion of women across counties. I find support for the argument. The findings have important implications for the study of representation of marginalized groups, as formal inclusion of previously disenfranchised groups may not be sufficient to secure their de facto representation.
- Topic:
- Politics, Elections, Women, Suffrage, and Electoral Systems
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America