Racial authoritarianism in U.S. democracy

Abstract

One segment of the population experiences different rules and differential citizenship.

The predatory dimensions of criminal justice

“…At a rally for her deceased son, Valerie Castile spoke plainly: I told my son once before he had got murdered, "These people ain't even looking at you like a man, they looking at you as revenue…Because every time they stop you, they are going to give you a ticket, they are going to tow your car, so that ain't nothing but money." (2) Castile's experiences of roadside injustice are consistent with a long history of racially authoritarian policing in the United States (3). Yet they also reflect pronounced change.…”

“…Criminal legal authorities engage some Americans as equal citizens, deserving of protection, service, and justice, while mining others for dollars and subjecting them to ongoing, debt-based social control. In so doing, they can teach potent lessons about racial hierarchy, civic standing, law, and the state (3,33). The meaning and experience of citizenship becomes tethered to an insistent question: What does it mean to be treated-by one's own government and in the name of law and justice-as a target of plunder?…”

Challenges to Subnational Democracy in the United States, Past and Present

“…Others include labor repression in western states (S. Smith 2013; McCann 2020), state-sponsored violence against Hispanics (Montejano 1987;Carrigan and Webb 2013), Hispanics' extrusion from politics (Almaguer 2008), the repressive treatment of immigrants (Saxton 1971), voter repression and election fraud (keyssar 2000), and undemocratic and often repressive city-level "political monopolies" (trounstine 2008; Gordon 2019). Across the entire country, racist, repressive, and seemingly unreformable policing has been a constant in the last century and since, with numerous and harmful consequences for democracy (Weaver and Prowse 2020).…”

Civil Society, Realized: Equipping the Mass Public to Express Choice and Negotiate Power

“…Structures of racial hierarchy exacerbate the situation in the United States, because of the systematic oppression and NOTE: Both authors contributed equally to this article. exclusion of certain groups that make the challenge of seeking common purpose seem farcical to some (Lieberman 1998;Klinkner and Smith 1999;Mickey 2015;Weaver and Prowse 2020). Perhaps it is no surprise that American democracy, like many other advanced democracies around the world, is experiencing clear signs of erosion (Keyssar 2009;Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018;Grumbach 2021).…”