Stanley P. Berard. Southern Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Norman: University of Press, 2001. 250 pp. $19.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8061-3305-8.

Reviewed by Tim Boyd

Published on H-Pol (May, 2006)

The empirical work of political scientists fre‐ While not discounting the notion that changes quently provides a valuable statistical resource within the House did exert some pressure, Berard for historians of the postwar South. In light of a convincingly argues that, given a similar increase clutch of recent works on the southern origins of in partisanship among southern Democrats in the recent American politics by Kevin Kruse and Matt Senate, institutional changes cannot account for Lassiter among others, it is worthwhile to consid‐ the bulk of the change.[2] er the conclusions reached a few years ago by Using a combination of data from roll call Stanley Berard in his thorough and well-argued votes in Congress and National Election Survey work on the voting behavior of southern (NES) returns, Berard tests a range of diferent Democrats since the 1970s in the U.S. House of causal factors, including urbanization, education, Representatives.[1] and size of black population, for their explanative Berard sets out to examine the driving forces value in determining the increased partisan unity behind the tendency, since the late 1970s, of exhibited by southern Democrats in Congress. In southern Democrats to vote ever more closely the process, he rejects the view that the more lib‐ with their non-southern colleagues and ever more eral voting record of southern Democrats resulted distinctly from southern Republicans. simply from the fact that their constituencies be‐ Berard divides the possible explanations into came more "northern" or urbanized, and now in‐ two groups--pressure for more partisan behavior cluded larger non-white voting blocs--therefore, due to changes in the way that the House of Rep‐ they were more liberal. resentatives conducted its afairs, and pressure Berard challenges this "northern" hypothesis for more partisan behavior due to the political by arguing that, while urbanization may indeed priorities of the electorate in southern congres‐ lead to a more liberal outlook on social issues, it sional districts. was not necessarily associated with liberal atti‐ tudes towards economics. Additionally, while H-Net Reviews black voters are more liberal than white voters on social welfare, labor and civil liberties not involv‐ many issues, this is not universally so. Through ing race. Beginning with the 1990s, however, Be‐ the NES responses surveyed, Berard shows that rard fnds that the gap within the Democratic Par‐ on social/cultural issues not involving race, black ty was shrinking, and that southern Democrats voters are often more conservative than white aligned themselves more closely with Republicans voters in the South. than with the rest of their party only on votes re‐ Rather than focus simply on the changes in lating to defense (p. 103). This was a far cry from the makeup of southern congressional districts as the old "" of Republicans a whole, Berard instead highlights the importance and southern Democrats, beginning in the late of the changes within certain sub-sections of that 1930s, which had been a dominant force on sever‐ electorate, especially what he at one point terms al issues in Congress. "the politically involved strata" (p. 198). Since at Berard concludes with a chapter examining least the 1970s, political scientists have talked of the response of southern Democrats to minority the need to understand the diference between a status in the region and the Democratic Party's Congressman's geographical constituents (all the loss of Congress in 1994. Berard credits several voters in a district), their reelection constituents factors with producing the Republican majority in (those whose support they need in a general elec‐ 1994, including the creation of "minority-majori‐ tion) and their primary constituents (those whose ty" districts to elect more black Democrats (in the support they need to win their party's nomina‐ process creating heavier, pro-Republican white tion).[3] Berard spends a good deal of time on this majorities in other districts) and the GOP's ability latter category, and argues that a major impact on to make the elections a national referendum on a increased partisan voting in the House has been President and national party that was unpopular the increased polarization of party activists on an in the South. However, he once again pays partic‐ ever-rising number of issues in the South since ular attention to the leftward drift of Democratic the late 1970s (p. 92). party activists (and rightward drift of Republican Berard also points out that the partisan unity ones) on social issues in the late-1980s. By the exhibited by southern Democrats varied from is‐ mid-1990s, a notion had solidifed in the minds of sue to issue. The greatest level of coherence, and a majority of the southern electorate that the the earliest issues on which it became apparent, Democratic Party was socially and culturally too were on matters relating to economics and race. liberal for their tastes. Overall, Berard convincing‐ Berard argues that voters identifying themselves ly argues that the changing attitudes of the "politi‐ as southern Democrats were, from the 1970s on‐ cally involved strata" were as important, if not wards, ever more distinctly liberal on economic more so, in altering the voting behavior of south‐ matters than those labeling themselves Republi‐ ern Democrats in Congress than the changing atti‐ can. And while white southern Democrats were tudes of the mass southern electorate as a whole. hardly more liberal on racial matters than Repub‐ For political scientists and those interested in licans, black southern Democrats were substan‐ general statistical research about Congress, this tially more so, leading to pressure on Democrats book is extremely valuable. Berard's work also in the House to vote the party line on racial ques‐ speaks to several wider issues, however, that his‐ tions. torians of the South (and particularly of its poli‐ Through the 1980s, southern Democrats in tics) will fnd interesting. Its relevance is most ob‐ the House remained distinct from their party col‐ vious to what is still the central topic of works on leagues in terms of voting behavior on defense, southern politics, namely the reasons for the es‐

2 H-Net Reviews tablishment of a Republican majority in the once nor note, while the points made in the book can "solidly" Democratic South. While Berard demon‐ be understood without recourse to statistical strates that racial context does play a part in de‐ method, those not versed in the calculations Be‐ termining partisan identifcation for southern rard uses will most likely fnd themselves skim‐ whites (as it clearly does for southern blacks), he ming through several pages worth of tables to get argues that economics drive electoral choice. In to the conclusions the author wishes to make. this sense, the book is a useful precursor to the re‐ More problematically, for all his analysis of cent work by Byron Shafer and Richard Johnston, urbanization and its impact, there is little difer‐ The End of Southern Exceptionalism (2006), which entiation between "urban" and "suburban" areas-- makes a similar argument. both are treated as "urban" in this work, and yet Berard also draws attention to what is still an the role of a rising suburban population in the understudied topic in the rise of southern conser‐ South should not be understated. There is also the vatism, namely the interaction between funda‐ question of the direction of political transforma‐ mentalism and the conservative movement. In tion. Berard rejects the idea of a "northernization" one of the most interesting parts of the book, Be‐ of the southern electorate, but does not address rard shows that rural whites in the South are uni‐ the question (raised periodically since the 1970s versally socially more conservative, particularly at least) of whether the non-southern electorate on abortion and school prayer, than urban resi‐ has, in John Egerton's terms, perhaps been "south‐ dents, yet they are generally more economically ernized."[5] liberal. This pattern is reversed, however, for In fact, readers may query whether the tri‐ those considering themselves fundamentalists, partite distinction between "southern Democrats," who, regardless of income, are likely to identify "Republicans" and "northern Democrats" is really with both socially and economically conservative all that viable. These were the three blocs used to positions (p. 62). A fuller understanding of how calculate the "conservative coalition," but are all this came about would add greatly to an under‐ Democrats outside of the former Confederacy that standing of the modern South. similar? Do Democratic Congressmen from the Berard places political activists at the center Mountain West respond to the same constituency of his analysis and, in doing so, raises questions pressures and vote the same way as those in ur‐ about the locus of agency in generating political ban New England? Berard's work is clearly in‐ change. By emphasizing the grassroots, Berard is tended to tackle the issue of Democrats from the providing valuable assistance to the likes of Lisa South, so this is less a complaint than a curiosity, McGirr and others who have of late been focusing but one does wonder how the fndings would on the role of grassroots activists in the rise of the have changed if the categories of "non-southern" New Right since the 1950s.[4] What remains to be Democrats had been broken down as well. done is a similarly detailed investigation of Finally, as is the case with many empirical change at the grassroots level of the Democratic works, it would have been nice to have some Party. If Berard is correct in his conclusions, then more actual people and events as case studies of this is a critical arena of change in southern and the process which Berard describes. He does men‐ American politics, and it is not yet satisfactorily tion occasional specifc votes in Congress, but ev‐ addressed in the existing historical literature. erything else is a highly impersonal and mecha‐ For all its merits and clear argument, there nistic process. How did "constituency pressures," are some weaknesses in the book, which may well or activist outlook, efect the decisions of southern prove irksome, especially to historians. On a mi‐ Democrats in how to vote on the Martin Luther

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King Jr. Federal Holiday? The Reagan tax cuts of the early 1980s do come up for discussion, but the actual people involved remain essentially name‐ less, giving the impression that they are simply at the mercy of larger forces they cannot control. It is at times similar to trying to establish the deci‐ sive moments in a baseball game based purely on a printout of the statistics, without any descrip‐ tion of the action or the players. There is no doubt, however, that Berard's work is a valuable addition to the literature on southern and American politics, and that it pro‐ vides plenty of food for thought not only for fur‐ ther historical study, but also for contemporary political issues. Notes [1]. Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005); and Matthew Lassiter, The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South (Princeton: Princeton Universi‐ ty Press, 2006). [2]. For a discussion of the change in the Sen‐ ate, see M. V. Hood III, Quentin Kidd and Irwin L. Morris, "Of Byrds and Bumpers: Using Democratic Senators to Analyze Political Change in the South, 1960-1995," American Journal of Political Science 43, no. 2 (1999), pp. 465-487. [3]. Richard Fenno, Home Style: House Mem‐ bers in Their Districts (Boston: Little Brown, 1978). [4]. Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Ori‐ gins of the New American Right (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). [5]. John Egerton, The Americanization of Dix‐ ie: The of America (New York: Harper's Magazine Press, 1974).

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Citation: Tim Boyd. Review of Berard, Stanley P. Southern Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. H-Pol, H-Net Reviews. May, 2006.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11809

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