Interest Group Politics In The Southern States

Underscores the pivotal, and at times controlling, role played by interest groups in southern politics.

The unanimity and radicalism of South Carolina politics, culminating in it's becoming the first state to secede from the Union, have long been a subject of interest and controversy. This book explores how South Carolina's 19th-century radicalism was an outgrowth of its experience with British imperial politics in the late colonial period.

One of the most important developments in American politics during this century has been the growing prominence and influence of the Southern states on the national political landscape. The Executive Branch is controlled by Arkansas and Tennessee, the House of Representatives is led from Georgia, and the Senate from Mississippi. Republican control in Congress depends largely on white Southern votes. Written by the country's most prominent scholars of Southern politics, The New Politics of the Old South is a state-by-state analysis of contemporary Southern political behavior that analyzes the influence of race and religious interest groups on the Southern electorate. Designed to be adopted for courses on Southern politics but accessible to interested general readers, this book traces the shifting trends of the Southern electorate and explains its growing influence on the course of national politics.

Now in its fifth edition, The New Politics of the Old South is the best and most comprehensive analysis and history of political behaviors and shifting demographics in America’s southern states. Edited by leading scholars Charles S. Bullock III and Mark J. Rozell, this book has been updated through the 2012 elections to provide the most accurate and useful snapshot of the state of southern politics, and the ways in which they have developed over time. The southern electorate is a fascinating, dynamic body politic, and the study of its evolution is paramount to understanding the broader political developments occurring at a national level. While accessible to any interested reader, this edition illuminates the South’s essential and growing role in the study, and the story, of American politics.

This book describes and analyses the major transformations of southern politics of the past half century that have had a profound impact on national politics and government. Beginning with the tumultuous events of 1968 and Richard Nixon's "southern strategy", the authors show how, over the next half century, the South has been transformed by massive changes in demographics, race, partisanship, and by growing religious conservative activism, culminating in both risingprogressive Democratic Party gains in some southern states and also the unlikely election of Donald J. Trump as president with near solid southern support.

"Policy Making and Southern Distinctiveness examines the uniqueness of Southern politics and their policy choices. While decades of scholarship on the politics of the American South have focused on partisanship and electoral outcomes as the primary elements of interest in Southern politics, few works have focused on the more practical outcomes of these political processes; specifically, comparing state policy choices of Southern states to non-Southern states. This book examines six different policy arenas, voting access, gun control, health care, reproductive rights, water and COVID-19 pandemic response, comparing policy choices in states in the South with states in the non-South. The authors find that the South is distinct in several, but not all, of the policy arenas examined. They conclude that the South as a region is unique because of exceptional degree of one-party control evident in the South, coupled with a long-standing preoccupation with partisanship and race-based politics. Policy Making and Southern Distinctiveness provides valuable insights into how and why states behave in the manner they do and where Southern states may diverge from the rest of the country. It will be of interest to scholars of Southern politics, state comparative policy, public policy, American politics, and federalism/intergovernmental relations"--