State Autonomy and American Political Development: How Mass Democracy Promoted State Power

In: Studies in American political development, Band 19, Heft 2, S. 117-136

Abstract

In this article the author questions the comparativist & American political academic assumption that that United States government acts autonomously from social demands to argue that the historical source of this assumption comes from an underestimation of the autonomy of nineteenth century American government. The author argues that voter participation & public opinion is is characterized as vulnerable to elite manipulation, releasing the state from societal control. Historical analysis of ninteenth-century American democratic culture, finance in the postbellum period, & the Ohio gubernatorial elections of 1875 & 1876 indicate that the high levels of popular participation could have been manufactured by political elites. The author concludes that the current ill-informed American electorate pliability can fuel state autonomy & creates elected officials that are no longer vulnerable to public opinion. Appendixes, References. J. Harwell