Previously: electoral logic of violence

Today: violence for power consolidation

• Wilmington Riot
• Power Consolidation vs Electoral Gain
  • difference in motives?
  • difference in opportunities?
  • difference in techniques?
• Evidence on Lynching in the United States

1898 Racial Violence in North Carolina:

• 21 years after “end” of Reconstruction, return of whites to power in the South

While you watch, compare this to electoral logic of ethnic violence we discussed earlier this week:

• how are motives for violence similar/different?
• how are opportunities for violence similar/different?
• how are techniques for violence similar/different?

Discuss with your neighbors: compared to the electoral logic of ethnic violence in India we discussed earlier this week:

• how are motives for violence similar/different?
• how are opportunities for violence similar/different?
• how are techniques for violence similar/different?

Electoral logic: politicians/parties interested in winning office.

• use of ethnic violence is cynical tactic to win support of voters
• goal is to win next election, no agenda to end elections/change the rules
• violence “works” by unifying ethnic group around ethnic party

Power consolidation: politicians/parties have specific policy goals (group dominance, or non-ethnic policy around e.g. economy, tax rates)

• use of violence is tactic to secure policy goals, efforts to change the rules
• violence “works” by intimidating/disempowering outgroup (as an end in itself)
• violence “works” by unifying ethnic group, to attain policy goals

Electoral logic

• only worth it just before an election
• violence always informal
• primarily aimed at shifting voters preferences

Power consolidation

• violence may be useful before or after election to overturn/undo results.
• violence may be formalized (into violence that constitutes boundaries) with rule changes
• often aimed at intimidating “wrong” voters

electoral logic:

• parties exploit existing organizational networks

power consolidation:

• parties exploit existing organizational networks
• need cooperation from the state (or insurgent organizations)

Before Wilmington Riot, similar events took place in 1870s:

• so-called “Redeemers” violently repressed black voters, overthrew elected legislatures/governors in the 1870s.
• E.g. In Louisiana, laid siege to state capital building.

Epperly et al (2020) examine whether racial violence was used for power consolidation more broadly in the US:

White Southern elites were interested in either or both policy goals

• white supremacy
• limiting progressive economic policies (taxation, workers rights)

violence is strategically useful to

• inhibit black political power
• prevent biracial political coalitions that enact progressive economic reforms

Different forms of violence available

lynching/mob violence

• could unify whites (if mob is large), intimidate African Americans
• but costly: arouse national attention, federal civil rights enforcement
• inefficient: sporadic, requiring collective action and coordination

legal system

• could legally bar most African Americans from voting
• violence is less visible
• efficient: enforced by state agencies, easier to coordinate

If lynching served as a form of power consolidation, then

1. should expect lynching to follow electoral logic when Jim Crow laws not in force
   • lynchings nearer in time to elections
   • lynchings when bi-racial coalitions are powerful
2. should expect lynching to no longer follow electoral logic once Jim Crow laws in effect
   • lynching no longer needed to take power; legal institutions replace it as form of power consolidation

Comparing counties within the same former slave states with

• similar proportion black population
• similar dependence on cotton production
• in the same year…

before Jim Crow (black lines)

during Jim Crow (gray lines), flat… no electoral logic

Unresolved questions:

• Why attack Wilmington after electoral defeat of Fusion government?
• What is the purpose of extensive media coverage invoking racist fears?
• Why hide the history of this event?

Hints at an answer to Wednesday’s question: why do “followers follow” ethnic elites who manipulate votes using violence?

Ethnic violence is often accompanied by messages that:

• provide “facts”, narratives, and arguments that justify and encourage violence
  • highlight threat to moral relationship
  • signal support for violence

Power Consolidation motives for violence:

• involve policy goals (including ethnic hierarchy)
• willingness to change the rules
• may transition from “violence that transforms boundary” to “violence constitutive of boundary”