Southern Politics in the 1990s

Abstract

Southern Politics in the 1990s. Edited by Alexander P. Lamis. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. Pp. xviii, 490. $39.95, ISBN 0-8071-2374-9.) Scholars have attempted to update V. O. Key's magisterial Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York, 1949) at regular intervals since the 1960s. It seems to require, in most cases, at least a dozen political scientists to match Key's exquisite thematic analysis and his memorable depiction of individual states. (Of course, to be fair, Key had a research team working with him.) Although such volumes are often worthy memorials to Key, none has quite matched his scholarly virtuosity. Alexander P. Lamis has long worked in this genre. He single-handedly produced The Two-Party South (New York, 1984), a justly praised book that reviewed the southern political terrain during the critical years of the 1970s and early 1980s. He continues the story, this time with the aid of twelve journalists and fourteen political scientists (at least one of each per each state), in Southern Politics in the 1990s. Between Lamis's useful introductory and concluding chapters, the book moves from state to state to focus on the rise of the Republican Party in the South during the 1990s, especially during the critical years surrounding the 1994 election. After the Democrats recovered from the first Republican challenges during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the party continued to dominate southern politics by molding an effective biracial coalition of blacks and moderate whites. That combination was still working quite well as late as 1990. The Republicans might exploit scandals and other exceptional circumstances, or the talents and money of charismatic individuals, to win some races for top state offices and even the presidency, but the GOP found it much harder to make inroads down-ticket. State legislatures and local governments remained in Democratic hands, with Republicans not bothering to contest many offices. By the early 1990s, however, demographic trends benefited the Republicans. For years a burgeoning middle class, a wave of in-migration, and booming suburban communities all created potential Republicans (as well as independents). The GOP finally tapped this potential following the 1990 census as a result of legislative--and often judicial--reapportionment for the U.S. House of Representatives and state chambers. Most reapportionment plans created minority districts that were to be won by black Democrats, but at the cost of making many other districts majority Republican. The GOP's biggest advance came in 1994, when reapportionment, strategic errors, and the unpopularity of President Bill Clinton hurt the Democratic Party. …