Disenfranchising Democracy
Constructing the Electorate in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France

Disenfranchising Democracy examines the exclusions that accompany democratization and provides a theory of the expansion and restriction of voting rights.

David A. Bateman (Author)

9781108455459, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 October 2018

364 pages, 16 b/w illus. 5 tables
22.7 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

'David A. Bateman's new book explores nearly all of the crucial questions concerning democracy and inclusion that we are grappling with today … This is an excellent book that should be read and taught by scholars of political development.' Dawn Langan Teele, Political Science Quarterly

The first wave of democratization in the United States - the removal of property and taxpaying qualifications for the right to vote - was accompanied by the disenfranchisement of African American men, with the political actors most supportive of the former also the most insistent upon the latter. The United States is not unique in this respect: other canonical cases of democratization also saw simultaneous expansions and restrictions of political rights, yet this pattern has never been fully detailed or explained. Through case studies of the USA, the UK, and France, Disenfranchising Democracy offers the first cross-national account of the relationship between democratization and disenfranchisement. It develops a political institutional perspective to explain their co-occurrence, focusing on the politics of coalition-building and the visions of political community coalitions advance in support of their goals. Bateman sheds new light on democratization, connecting it to the construction of citizenship and cultural identities.

1. The puzzle of democratic disenfranchisement
Part I. The United States: 2. Revolutionary democracy
3. The 'monstrous spectacle' of Jeffersonian democracy
4 The white man's republic
Part II. The United Kingdom and France: 5. The fall of the Protestant constitution
6. The republic through the side door
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Election law [LNDS], Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], American Civil War [HBWJ], History of the Americas [HBJK], European history [HBJD]