The Social Logic of Past Politics: Individual Voting Records, Social Networks, and Neighborhoods in Two 19th-Century Cities

FAIN: RZ-51455-12

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (Charlottesville, VA 22903-4625)
Donald A. DeBats (Project Director: December 2011 to May 2017)

Completion of a database and website, and research and writing of journal articles and a scholarly monograph related to voting records and social networks in 19th-century Alexandria, Virginia, and Newport, Kentucky. (36 months)

The mid nineteenth century is often viewed as the high point of US political engagement. This project uses individual level political information preserved for all voters in two nineteenth century cities, Alexandria, Virginia and Newport, Kentucky, to explore how networks and neighborhoods shaped the way individuals participated in that politics and the broad social context of that politics. It approaches the two cities at moments of crisis: Alexandria, a city resting on slave labor, on the eve of the Civil War and Newport, an industrial city resting on immigrant labor, on the eve the great depression of the 1870s.

Associated Products

The Social Logic of Past Politics (Web Resource)
Title: The Social Logic of Past Politics
Author: Donald DeBats
Abstract: Alexandria and Newport are River Cities ? one on the Potomac River opposite Washington DC and one on the Ohio River opposite Cincinnati, Ohio. This website ? and the large study on which it rests -- focuses on these two cities as they were in years just before the Civil War (Alexandria) and just after (Newport). In the nineteenth century the United States was still a rural nation, but cities were the way of the future.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.socsci.flinders.edu.au/amst/TaleofTwoCities

It’s Not Just What You Have, but Who You Know: Networks, Social Proximity to Elites, and Voting in State and Local Elections (Article)
Title: It’s Not Just What You Have, but Who You Know: Networks, Social Proximity to Elites, and Voting in State and Local Elections
Author: Donald DeBats
Author: Matthew Pietryka
Abstract: Individual-level studies of electoral turnout and vote choice have focused largely on personal attributes as explanatory variables. We argue that scholars should also consider the social network in which individuals are embedded, which may influence voting through variation in individuals’ social proximity to elites. Our analysis rests on newly discovered historical records revealing the individual votes of all electors in the 1859 statewide elections in Alexandria, Virginia and the 1874 municipal elections in Newport, Kentucky, paired with archival work identifying the social relations of the cities’ populations. We also replicate our core findings using survey data from a modern municipal election. We show that individuals more socially proximate to elites turn out at a higher rate and individuals more socially proximate to a given political party’s elites vote disproportionately for that party. These results suggest an overlooked social component of voting and provide a rare nineteenth-century test of modern voting theories.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305541600071X
Primary URL Description: URL for the article
Access Model: Cambridge University Press Cambridge Core Subscription
Format: Journal
Publisher: American Political Science Review

Prizes

Heinz I. Eulau Award
Date: 8/29/2018
Organization: American Political Science Association
Abstract: The Heinz Eulau prize is awarded annually for the best article published in the American Political Science Review and for the best article published in Perspectives on Politics in the calendar year. It carries a prize of $750.

Political Ties Award
Date: 8/29/2018
Organization: American Political Science Association
Abstract: This award is given to the best article published on political networks.

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