Political Culture and the Death Penalty

Abstract

Since the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the death penalty was not inherently unconstitutional, most states have adopted capital punishment statutes. Yet execution rates vary considerably from state to state. The objective of this work is to analyze the degree by which political culture is a determinant of states' implementation of capital punishment. This article finds that political culture, as measured by Daniel Elazar's prototype classifications of American political subcultures, is an important determinant of the adoption of death penalty statutes and the frequency of executions. Specifically, states that are characterized by a more traditionalistic political culture are more likely to have adopted a death penalty statute and to execute inmates more frequently. The link between political culture and the death penalty remains strong and stable even when controlling for a host of other factors that have been linked to the death penalty in prior research.

Making Sense out of Nonsense: The Deconstruction of State-Level Sex Offender Residence Restrictions

“…Political ideology is often correlated with philosophies of punishment and criminal justice policy (see Fisher and Pratt, 2006;Jacobs and Carmichael 2004). "Historical evidence indicates that Republican candidates for both state and national offices placed far greater emphasis on severe punishments than Democrats" (Jacobs and Carmichael 2004, p. 270).…”

Public Opinion and Death Penalty Policy Under Direct Democracy Institutions: A Longitudinal Analysis of the American States

“…Several of the coefficients for the other variables are in the expected direction and statistically significant as well. All else equal, states with conservative governments are more likely to have the death penalty, and the racial threat and political culture explanations offered in previous research receive support (Fisher & Pratt, 2006; Jacobs & Carmichael, 2002). More important for my purposes, public opinion is a significant predictor of policy even when controlling for citizen ideology, suggesting that states are responsive to citizens’ policy-specific views, not just their general ideological orientations.…”

“…Some scholars argue that the modern death penalty serves as a means by which whites attempt to impose social control on large black populations, as lynchings did following emancipation (Jacobs & Carmichael, 2002; Jacobs et al, 2005). Third, Fisher and Pratt (2006) argue that states with traditionalistic political cultures, which place high value on maintaining law and order, are more likely to have the death penalty than those with moralistic or individualistic cultures. Hence, I distinguish the sixteen traditionalistic states from the others with a dummy variable.…”

Do High Rates of OSCAR Deficiencies Prompt Improved Nursing Facility Processes and Outcomes?

“…4 Second, Elazar's distinctions facilitate distinguishing economic and social conservatives (individualists and traditionalists, for Elazar), a difference that is conflated in the liberal-conservative dimension. Further, a number of studies find that Elazar's cultural distinctions hold up well against competition with alternative, more recent measures and continue to contribute usefully to predicting and explaining cross-state policy differences (Fisher & Pratt, 2006;Hanson, 1991;Kincaid, 1982;Mead, 2004;Moran & Watson, 1991). We expect that, as we move from traditionalistic through individualistic to moralistic states, our index for Elazar's cultural distinctions will produce a positive effect on state Medicaid nursing facility long-term programs' quality of care across time.…”