Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-first Century (African American Studies) - Hardcover

King-Meadows, Tyson; Schaller, Thomas F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0791467295 ISBN 13: 9780791467299

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2006

Synopsis

Comprehensive study of the state of black state legislative politics.

Devolution and Black State Legislators examines whether black state legislators can produce qualitative gains in the substantive representation of black interests. Once a battle cry by southern conservatives, "new federalism" has shifted power from Washington to the respective state governments and, ironically, has done so as black state legislators grow in number. Tyson King-Meadows and Thomas F. Schaller look at the debates surrounding black political incorporation, the tradeoffs between substantive and descriptive representation, racial redistricting, and the impact of black legislators on state budgetary politics. They situate contemporary constraints on black state elites as the union of macro- and micro-level forces, which allows for a reconsideration of how the idiosyncrasies of political, economic, and geographic culture converge with the internal dynamics of state legislative processes to produce particular environments. Interviews with black legislators provide valuable insights into how such idiosyncrasies may deprive institutional advancement-committee assignments, chairmanships, and party leadership positions-of the influence it once afforded.

About this title

About the Author

Tyson King-Meadows is Assistant Professor and Thomas F. Schaller is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

From the Back Cover

Devolution and Black State Legislators examines whether black state legislators can produce qualitative gains in the substantive representation of black interests. Once a battle cry by southern conservatives, "new federalism" has shifted power from Washington to the respective state governments and, ironically, has done so as black state legislators grow in number. Tyson King-Meadows and Thomas F. Schaller look at the debates surrounding black political incorporation, the tradeoffs between substantive and descriptive representation, racial redistricting, and the impact of black legislators on state budgetary politics. They situate contemporary constraints on black state elites as the union of macro- and micro-level forces, which allows for a reconsideration of how the idiosyncrasies of political, economic, and geographic culture converge with the internal dynamics of state legislative processes to produce particular environments. Interviews with black legislators provide valuable insights into how such idiosyncrasies may deprive institutional advancement committee assignments, chairmanships, and party leadership positions of the influence it once afforded.

"This book stands apart from much of the work on minority legislators by combining sophisticated thinking about representation elite behavior, mass preferences, and connections between the two with a thorough understanding of institutional evolution and its effects. This is exceptional work, which I recommend enthusiastically." Gary M. Segura, coeditor of Diversity in Democracy: Minority Representation in the United States

"The authors present an exhaustive survey of the literature, both theoretical and empirical, with extensive analytical and illuminating commentary. They draw our attention to the significance of state legislators, particularly since the Republicans Contract with America, the Republican capture of Congress in 1994, the greater conservativism of the population and the national government, and the accompanying devolution of power and resources to the state governments." David Covin, California State University at Sacramento

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791467295
• ISBN 13: 9780791467299
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 302