Uneasy Alliances

by Frymer, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780691148014
• ISBN10: 0691148015
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-16
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Uneasy Alliancesis a powerful challenge to how we think about the relationship between race, political parties, and American democracy. While scholars frequently claim that the need to win elections makes government officials responsive to any and all voters, Paul Frymer shows that not all groups are treated equally; politicians spend most of their time and resources on white swing voters--to the detriment of the African American community. As both parties try to attract white swing voters by distancing themselves from blacks, black voters are often ignored and left with unappealing alternatives. African Americans are thus the leading example of a "captured minority."Frymer argues that our two-party system bears much of the blame for this state of affairs. Often overlooked in current discussions of racial politics, the party system represents a genuine form of institutional racism. Frymer shows that this is no accident, for the party system was set up in part to keep African American concerns off the political agenda. Today, the party system continues to restrict the political opportunities of African American voters, as was shown most recently when Bill Clinton took pains to distance himself from African Americans in order to capture conservative votes and win the presidency. Frymer compares the position of black voters with other social groups--gays and lesbians and the Christian right, for example--who have recently found themselves similarly "captured." Rigorously argued and researched, Uneasy Alliances is a powerful challenge to how we think about the relationship between black voters, political parties, and American democracy.In a new afterword, Frymer examines the impact of Barack Obama's election on the delicate relationship between race and party politics in America.

Author Biography

Paul Frymer is associate professor of politics at Princeton University. He is the author of Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Demacratic Party (Princeton).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgment	p. xi
Introdution	p. 3
Competitive Parties and the ôInvisibilityö of Captured Groups	p. 27
National Party Competition and the Disenfranchisement of black Voters in the South, 1866-1932	p. 49
Capture Inside the Democratic Party, 1965-1996	p. 87
Party education and Mobilization and Captured Group	p. 120
Black Representation in Congress	p. 140
Is the Concept of Electoral Capture Applicable to Other Groups? The Cash of Gay and Lesbian Voters in the Democratic Party and the Christian Right in the Republican Party	p. 179
Afterword to the 2010 Edition. Obama and the Representation of Captured Groups	p. 207
Index	p. 237
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