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Representation, Incorporation, and Corrections Spending: The Counterbalancing Effect of Black Political Incorporation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2020

Anna Gunderson Open the ORCID record for Anna Gunderson [Opens in a new window]
Anna Gunderson*
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Anna Gunderson, Department of Political Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. E-mail: agunderson@lsu.edu
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Abstract

Theories concerning the adoption of punitive policies at the state level often cite two dynamics: conservative ideology and racial threat, that punitive policies are more likely in states with Republican politicians and a higher proportion of Black residents. I argue these theories lose their explanatory power in the post-Civil Rights era, and suggest Black political incorporation acts as a powerful antidote to the punitive impulses of government officials. I test my hypotheses on a dataset of state corrections spending from 1983 to 2011 and find evidence for the counterbalancing argument. States with increasing percentages of Black state legislators spend .36 fewer dollars per capita on corrections, suggesting Black political incorporation is an important mediator in the relationship between racial threat and corrections budgets. This paper has implications for the application of the social control theory as descriptive representation grows, but also for the study of the effect of minority politicians on budgets and policy more broadly. The adoption of policies deleterious to certain communities can be mitigated by the presence of representatives who legislate on behalf of those communities.

Keywords

Corrections spendingdescriptive representationstate politicsprison policy
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 5 , Special Issue 3: Race and Criminal Justice , November 2020 , pp. 573 - 603
Copyright
Copyright © The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2020

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