Local Political Control Research Articles

Junta Democrática: Californios and Reconstruction in California

Abstract During the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, elite Californios—Mexicans of mixed-race descent made citizens by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—supported legislation and political platforms that rejected the varied attempts at biracial democracy. Through an examination of the political life of Antonio Coronel, this article reconsiders elite Californios as state makers and obstructors of Reconstruction in California. At the end of the U.S.-Mexico War and until his death in 1894, Coronel, like other Californios, collaborated with Anglo American politicians to maintain his regional power by supporting a racially restrictive state. In offering their cooperation, elite Californios momentarily maintained their privileged social status in areas where Californios held local political control, such as Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. While Anglo American settlers relied on elite Californios for political legitimacy and state making, they viewed Californios as unassimilable into whiteness because of their Spanish culture and mixed ancestry, and they gradually denied Californio claims to racial superiority and socio-legal privileges, as political cooperation became less crucial to the success of the state project. As a direct result of Coronel’s and other elite Californios’ cooperation before the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865) and through Reconstruction (1863–1879), the California government rejected the federal government’s experiment in biracial democracy and supported policies of white supremacy that targeted the state’s growing non-white populations, a rejection that eventually jeopardized Californio power, including Coronel’s. This article demonstrates that Californio participation was crucial to the state’s rejection of Reconstruction.

Gender Responsive Budgeting at Union Parishad: Current Status, Potentials and Challenges

While the idea of gender-responsive budgeting has piqued the imagination of individuals all around the world, it is a relatively new phenomenon in Bangladesh. This budgeting technique has been stressed in Bangladesh’s previous four National Budget speeches. The government is prioritizing it in order to distribute government funding to all parts of society, especially women. The goal of this research is to establish the level of gender-responsive budgeting at the Union Parishad (UP) and its impact on the responsiveness of UP services, with a focus on health care. Furthermore, it strives to highlight at the union level the opportunities and challenges of gender-responsive budgeting in the health industry. Timeliness in service delivery and level of satisfaction of the service recipients were measured. The impact of gender responsive budgeting, and local political control on budget for UP health services is analyzed. ‘The study considers the amount of allocation, flow of fund, continuity of budgetary allocation, responsiveness in service delivery, level of satisfaction of women and level of local autonomy as independent variables to know what services are being provided along with their impacts. The study has opted for a mixed method for data collection and analysis including survey, interview from primary sources along with secondary literature. The study found that most of the local people don’t avail health service from Union Parishad and their expectation is not reflected in service delivery or the UP Plan and budget. Timeliness of service delivery and access to information were also major issues. All UP members were not aware of the allocation amount for women’s health issue despite 50% UP members saying consultation with women happens before preparing budget. Overall, the study finds that the budgets are not gender sensitive and there is no priority setting of the budget in health sector It recommends training for the UP officials and government initiatives 10 adopt and implement gender responsive budgeting at the union level.

When State Building Backfires: Elite Coordination and Popular Grievance in Rebellion

AbstractWe examine the complementary influence of elite politics, popular grievances, and central government weakness on rebellion. Efforts to strengthen the central state often come at the expense of the elite intermediaries charged with maintaining local political control. By driving a wedge between local elites and the central government, centralizing reforms can reduce intermediaries' willingness to repress mobilization, providing an opening for popular rebellion during both localized and national crises. For a given level of commoner grievance, revolts from below are thus more likely to be attempted and more likely to spread where elites' incentives to enforce order have been diminished. We formalize these ideas and provide supportive evidence using subnational data on rebellion, tax centralization, and drought in colonial Mexico from the late seventeenth century to the War of Independence.

Patronage and politics in a South African city: a case study of Nelson Mandela Bay

ABSTRACTA case study of a South African metropolitan municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay (NMBM), explores the dynamics between a political party in power and control over rents from public-allocation processes. The case study documents the weakening of the local state and political control of its allocation processes, linked to the parallel rise of a patronage-based business model within the African National Congress (ANC) as the local ruling party. Particular allocation processes that prove to be vulnerable are newly established programmes with as yet underdeveloped controls and institutional mechanisms. The paper reflects on experiences elsewhere in Africa and alternative analytical models to understand the interplay between rents, patronage and political power. The central features of the NMBM example are described in terms of the market forces unlocked by the South African transition to democracy. The paper concludes by looking at the importance of public institutions in circumscribing and directing markets.

El voto directo en Chihuahua: viejas y nuevas prácticas de control político electoral en el cantón Balleza, 1858-1864

The establishment of the direct vote in Chihuahua after the promulgation of the local constitution of 1858 and subsequent electoral laws modified the forms of organization of electoral processes but, above all, changed the rules of the political game that unleashed the elections. For the groups interested in the transfer of power, the objective remained the same, occupying the representative positions, only now they would have to interact with a wider universe of voters and political actors, because under the direct voting system, the vote was not hierarchized in degrees of election, as in indirect voting, and the result of the election would be defined by the sum of votes of all citizens. This change forced candidates for election to a greater effort to achieve the mobilization of the electorate, through the use of their clientelistic networks, taking advantage of the power and authority that they had, and through the attributions that the same electoral regulation had given them. This explains, as seen in the cantón Balleza elections, why the direct vote, although it forced to interact with the world of the electorate in a different way, did not endanger the local political control got by the political chiefs, the mayors of the municipalities, and the groups and factions that supported them; it also explains that, despite the dispersion of the vote that is registered in the electoral records, the list of winners to occupy the election positions kept the individuals belonging to the local power groups.

Los (Últimos) Caciques de Filipinas: Las Elites Coloniales antes del 98 by Juan Antonio Inarejos Muñoz

Reviewed by: Los (Últimos) Caciques de Filipinas: Las Elites Coloniales antes del 98 by Juan Antonio Inarejos Muñoz Mark Dizon JUAN ANTONIO INAREJOS MUÑOZ Los (Últimos) Caciques de Filipinas: Las Elites Coloniales antes del 98 Granada: Comares, 2015. 157 pages. Juan Antonio Inarejos Muñoz presents a snapshot of late–nineteenth-century municipal politics in the Philippines and thus sheds light on the conditions of the last decades of Spanish rule. Inarejos largely uses archival documents on the elections of gobernadorcillos (mayors) in a wide variety of Philippine towns to catch a glimpse of how colonialism operated at the municipal level and failed to address the problems of corruption. Although he reaches conclusions that are similar to those of other historians who have studied the same electoral process, he delves into aspects of gobernadorcillo elections that have received scant attention thus far. While he does recognize the Spanish friars’ dominant political role in local elections, he goes beyond this trite observation and explores how other actors—such as principales (chiefs) and provincial governors—and other elements—such as economics and race—played their part in the dynamics of gobernadorcillo elections. What emerges at the end of the book is a nuanced portrayal of nineteenth-century local politics whereby different actors used similar mechanisms at their disposal to achieve their own personal ends. [End Page 112] In chapter 1 Inarejos goes over well-trodden ground when he describes how Spanish friars used gobernadorcillo elections to solidify their economic and political position. Although the religious orders already had economic power through their landed estates and political power as representatives of the Spanish Crown, they still intervened in municipal elections to gain greater local political control by resorting to both fraudulent and legitimate means. In Imus, Cavite, the Recollects succeeded in getting a clerk of their estate into the position of gobernadorcillo by holding the election in their convent and disparaging the conduct of the other candidates to colonial authorities (13–21). In chapter 2, however, Inarejos is quick to point out that the friars’ power was not all-encompassing. Reports on the conduct of gobernadorcillo candidates did not come only from the parish priest but also from the Civil Guard, the treasury, and the provincial governor. Conflicting recommendations from these parties demonstrated the lack of a monolithic position on the part of the colonial government. Even the principales themselves were not passive in the face of election defeat. Losing parties filed complaints on election irregularities, which formed the stock-in-trade of the archival sources. Principales could and did use legal channels to challenge colonial authorities even though the final decision on election procedures and results did not always go in their favor as the colonial administration generally preferred to save face. Controlling local offices protected their economic interests, demonstrated their power, and led them one step closer to their vision of greater self-government. While being gobernadorcillo brought political power, not everyone wanted the position because of the financial responsibilities it entailed. The gobernadorcillo had to shoulder any shortfall in the tribute collection. Inarejos claims that this renunciation of political office was more common in urban towns like Manila and Cebu City but not in rural areas. Among the many excuses candidates made to avoid taking office Inarejos deftly deals with the specific issue of race in chapter 3. In Binondo the winner of the 1883 election claimed to be a Spanish mestizo to make him ineligible to be gobernadorcillo of the Chinese mestizo “barrio” (58–66). At the port of Cavite, adversely affected by the abolition of the tobacco monopoly, a group of principales petitioned the government to remove the racial criteria that prevented Spanish mestizos from occupying municipal office because the latter were the only ones who had the financial means to assume such office [End Page 113] (66–69). However, despite being racially restricted to indios and Chinese mestizos, the position of gobernadorcillo was sometimes occupied by Spanish mestizos. In towns where the position was coveted, the principales attempted to get Spanish mestizo gobernadorcillos disqualified due to their racial ineligibility (69–72). Inarejos pushes forward a more nuanced and dynamic notion of race in Philippine history...

Local Political Uncertainty, Family Control and Investment Behavior

Estimating difference-in-differences models on a comprehensive dataset of Italian companies, we provide novel insights into the literature on political uncertainty and firm investment. We first establish that local political uncertainty leads to declining investment. Next, we show that family control neutralizes this effect: family firms are more likely than other firms to invest during politically uncertain times, especially when operating in industries dependent on public spending and/or managed by family members. Finally, we document that this investment resilience of family firms under political uncertainty translates into significantly greater profitability and growth.

How “Participatory Governance” Strengthens Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from Electoral Authoritarian Oaxaca, Mexico

Research on the impact of participatory institutions in Latin America has not yet examined how they work in authoritarian settings. National autocrats in Mexico implemented participatory reforms during that country's national electoral authoritarian regime. Building on research on political decentralization in authoritarian regimes, I argue that participatory institutions can be used to channel citizen demands and to incorporate citizens into authoritarian systems, thereby strengthening authoritarian rule. However, following research on democratic participatory governance, I also argue that participatory institutions will work better in this regard when designed from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Statistical analysis of patterns of municipal-level electoral authoritarian support in Mexico shows that bottom-up-designed participatory institutions implemented during electoral authoritarian rule strengthened local political control to a greater extent than top-down-designed political systems. The study supports research revealing the anti-democratic effects of participatory institutions in democratic Latin American nations.

Pervasive, but not politicised: everyday violence, local rule and party popularity in a township in Cape Town

This paper explores relationships between political actors, local governance and violence in a community, through the case of security provision in the township of Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town. It traces the actions of key actors including SANCO, the City of Cape Town and ordinary residents in respect of crime, taxi violence, xenophobic attacks, protection rackets and service delivery protests. The extensive and varied nature of violence in Imizamo Yethu is related to uneven political legitmacy. Further, this weak governance is attributable to a lack of legitimacy of both the City of Cape Town and informal community leaders. The latter are take the form of the local branch of a civic association, the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) allied to the national ruling party, the Africa National Congress (ANC). In Imizamo Yethu, SANCO is weak and riven by factionalism, but the legitimacy of the ANC remains high and there is no violent contest for local leadership positions. Social cohesion in IY is in flux, and violence is alternately used to shore up particular notions of social cohesion; while in other examples violence erodes social cohesion. In short, inadequate state governance and informal rule co-exist with high levels of political support for the ANC and its allies, high levels of violence and uncertain implications for social cohesion. This account runs against three common key assumptions. The first is that, under conditions of weak rule, violence is primarily about contests over political power. The pervasiveness of violence by a variety of social actors in Imizamo Yethu, but not so much by SANCO or the ANC, challenges this assumption. The second is that the violence is constitutive of informal rule in such contexts. However, in Imizamo Yethu the importance of party identification and ability to extract resources from the local state are more important to effective local rule than violent capacities. Lastly, the case of IY illustrates that effective local rule is not necessarily an important condition of party legitimacy, which is rooted in larger dynamics of national and race politics. Indeed, such is the extent of political adherence , as opposed to social cohesion, that violence forms no part of competition within the ANC family for local office and political control.

Pervasive, but not politicised: everyday violence, local rule and party popularity in a township in Cape Town

This paper explores relationships between political actors, local governance and violence in a community, through the case of security provision in the township of Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town. It traces the actions of key actors including SANCO, the City of Cape Town and ordinary residents in respect of crime, taxi violence, xenophobic attacks, protection rackets and service delivery protests. The extensive and varied nature of violence in Imizamo Yethu is related to uneven political legitmacy. Further, this weak governance is attributable to a lack of legitimacy of both the City of Cape Town and informal community leaders. The latter are take the form of the local branch of a civic association, the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) allied to the national ruling party, the Africa National Congress (ANC). In Imizamo Yethu, SANCO is weak and riven by factionalism, but the legitimacy of the ANC remains high and there is no violent contest for local leadership positions. Social cohesion in IY is in flux, and violence is alternately used to shore up particular notions of social cohesion; while in other examples violence erodes social cohesion. In short, inadequate state governance and informal rule co-exist with high levels of political support for the ANC and its allies, high levels of violence and uncertain implications for social cohesion. This account runs against three common key assumptions. The first is that, under conditions of weak rule, violence is primarily about contests over political power. The pervasiveness of violence by a variety of social actors in Imizamo Yethu, but not so much by SANCO or the ANC, challenges this assumption. The second is that the violence is constitutive of informal rule in such contexts. However, in Imizamo Yethu the importance of party identification and ability to extract resources from the local state are more important to effective local rule than violent capacities. Lastly, the case of IY illustrates that effective local rule is not necessarily an important condition of party legitimacy, which is rooted in larger dynamics of national and race politics. Indeed, such is the extent of political adherence , as opposed to social cohesion, that violence forms no part of competition within the ANC family for local office and political control.

Local Political Uncertainty, Family Control and Investment Behavior

Local Political Uncertainty, Family Control and Investment Behavior

The Politics of Central Tax Collection in China since 1994: local collusion and political control

The central leaders in China adopted a tax assignment system and centralized taxation in 1994 with the goal of increasing central tax revenues. By setting up the National Tax Bureau, the central leaders intended to leave central tax collection undisturbed by local influences. However, informal practices at the local level revealed that the local governments colluded with the central tax bureaucrats stationed in their regions at the expense of central interests. The need to develop local economies, an important task assigned to local governments, is one important reason behind local interference in central tax collection. This study finds that the central government coped with this problem by changing the incentives of the provincial party secretaries through linking central tax collection in a jurisdiction with their chance of promotion.

From Political Fringe to Political Mainstream: The Front National and the 2014 Municipal and European Elections in France

The succession of Jean-Marie Le Pen by his daughter Marine Le Pen as president of the Front National (FN) in January 2011 heralded a significant strategic shift in the party’s development. In terms of its overarching political objective, the FN has moved from playing its historical spoiler role as an anti-system protest party to recasting itself as a mainstream political formation interested in exercising political power. In order to secure this objective, the FN under Marine Le Pen has adopted a two-pronged discursive and organizational approach. At a discursive level, the FN has toned down the racialized anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic rhetoric that characterized it in the past and instead chosen to couch its rejection of immigration in a broader, more conceptually neutral opposition to neoliberal globalization. The central element underpinning this discursive aggiornamento has been the rejection of the European Union, which is presented as an institutional stalking horse for the latter, conjoined with an avowedly Gaullist reaffirmation of France’s economic and political sovereignty. While the ‘UMPS’ (an acronym combining the initials of the principal center-right and -left parties in France) is busy facilitating Europe’s neo-liberal economic integration, so this new line goes, the FN erects itself as the sole authentic partisan opponent of this project and defender of its sectoral victims. At an organizational level, the FN has attempted to balance its top-heavy party structure built around a charismatic leader in favor of establishing a grassroots structure geared to responding to local concerns. Specifically, it is attempting to develop — much like the French Communist Party in the 1950’s and 1960’s — a clientelistic network to anchor its municipal electoral implantation. In turn, this Frontisme municipal is designed to strengthen the FN’s parliamentary representation at the mainstream parties’ expense. Thus, through both its discursive aggiornamento and new emphasis on local organizing, the party hopes to translate its status as the third political force in the country following the 2012 presidential elections into concrete electoral gains. This would allow it to more directly shape national policy and ultimately aspire to exercising power in its own right. The municipal and European parliamentary elections respectively scheduled for March and May 2014 stand to provide a sterling empirical test of the electoral effectiveness of the FN’s strategic reorientation under Marine Le Pen. The former will gauge the FN’s organizational gambit to wrest local political control from the mainstream parties, while the latter will measure the electoral resonance of its anti-European discourse. On a backdrop of generalized socioeconomic crisis, this paper shall analyze the FN’s performance in the 2014 municipal and European parliamentary elections from the standpoint of discourse and organization as essential factors of political supply. First, it will assess what the electoral results bode for the FN’s positioning and status within the French party system, chiefly whether they signal the party’s ‘breakout’ from the political fringe to the political mainstream. In turn, it will consider the broader lessons and implications this case holds for other radical right-wing parties in Europe.

Landlords, Tenants and Agrarian Reform: Local Elites and Regime Transitions in Avis, Portugal, 1778–2011

Abstract:In a small municipality in the Alentejo region of Portugal, the same group of families, defined by latifundia landownership or tenancy, dominated local political institutions for two centuries during which great changes occurred. Three revolutions resulted in regime transitions: the 1820 Liberal Revolution, the 1910 Republic and the 1926 Dictatorship, which led to Salazar's Estado Novo. Even though a few members of these families offered some resistance to each of these revolutions at an early stage, they all adapted their behaviour and kept local political control within their ranks. Local traditional institutions, such as the local council and mayor, charitable and welfare associations, and corporate institutions created in the 1930s and 1940s to direct economic activities, were all presided over and controlled by members of the same rural elite. This continued until 1974, when the Carnation Revolution and agrarian reform removed and replaced these old elites with new ones. The lords of the land remained lords of the village for as long as control over the main economic resource of the region was the major factor in the maintenance of political power. These land occupations were not permanent. The process was reversed as a result of political factors relating to Portugal's accession to the European Economic Community in 1986. Agrarian elites in Southern Portugal no longer control jobs or the economy and therefore they no longer control local politics as they had for several generations. The Carnation Revolution and agrarian reform removed the old elites and replaced them with new ones. Agriculture is no longer the main economic activity of the countryside. The rural environment has become a hiking ground or an all-terrain vehicles track. The future is elsewhere and the current economic situation and the absence of elites have transformed rural areas into depopulated regions.

Subnational politics and foreign direct investment in Mexico

ABSTRACTFocusing on Mexico, this article makes two departures from existing studies of the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI): (1) it disaggregates investment into three types (resource-, market- and efficiency-seeking); and (2) it models variation in investment subnationally, across the 32 Mexican states. Using panel data for foreign investment between 2000 and 2009, we find that the predictors of subnational variation in investment go beyond simple geographic and economic conditions and include factors such as local political party control, social stability and the perceived effectiveness of state authorities. Moreover, the three types of investment are shaped by distinct social, political and economic dynamics. Insofar as the location and type of foreign investment can affect economic development and inequality within – and not just between – countries, the subnational distribution of investment is of consequence for both academics and policy makers.

Veterans, Organizational Skill and Ethnic Cleansing: Evidence from the Partition of South Asia

Can combat experience foster organizational skills that engender political collective action? We use the arbitrary assignment of troops to frontline combat in World War 2 to identify the effect of combat experience on two channels that change local ethnic composition and future political control: ethnic cleansing and co-ethnic immigration. During the Partition of South Asia in 1947, an environment where national borders were themselves endogenous to ethnic composition, we find that ethnically mixed districts whose veterans gained more combat experience exhibit greater co-ethnic immigration and ethnic cleansing. However, where ethnic groups had been in complementary economic roles or the minority received greater combat experience, there was relatively less minority ethnic cleansing. We interpret these results as reflecting the substitute roles of ethnic cleansing and co-ethnic immigration in altering local ethnic composition to gain political control and the role of combat experience in enhancing organizational skill that facilitates political collective action.

Civil Servants' Perceptions Regarding ICT Use in Norwegian Central Government

This article describes data on how central government officials think about the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in central government. It focuses primarily on e‐government, but features of e-democracy are also covered. The perceived effects of ICT on the economy, service quality, transparency, coordination, political and administrative control, and user participation are described. It also aims to explain variations in such perceived effects. The major findings are, first, that government-to-government tools are the most widespread, while e-democracy tools have received little attention. Second, the perceived effects are strongest regarding better public services, increased transparency, and internal coordination and administrative control, and weakest when it comes to coordination with local government and political control. Third, the most important set of independent variables explaining the variations in perceived effects of ICT are the actual use of ICT tools among civil servants, as well as structural features such as administrative level and tasks, demographic features (e.g., age), and cultural features, such as having an efficiency oriented culture.

Who is fooling who?

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine the impacts of the new public management (NPM)‐oriented management accounting on political control at the Malawian local government level. The objective is to investigate the extent to which NPM‐based management accounting practices have increased managerial autonomy and reduced political control.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on an empirical study conducted in six local government assemblies in Malawi. These include Salima Town Assembly, Blantyre City Assembly, Lilongwe City Assembly, Mzuzu City Assembly, Mzimba District Assembly, and Zomba Municipal Assembly. It is based on qualitative research methodology. The qualitative data were mainly collected through personal interviews with assembly managers and councillors. In addition, the study also relied on a review of various literature and newspaper articles providing insights to the subject under study.FindingsThe paper has found that the NPM‐based management accounting has led to loss of local political control. In this regard, politicians resort to unproductive behaviors which include interference, sabotage and corruption to regain their lost political control. On the other hand, the administrators sustain their managererial autonomy through NPM‐based managerial prerogatives, seeking central government intervention and colluding with the councillors in corrupt activities.Originality/valueThe paper is of both theoretical and empirical value. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the management accounting literature by looking at management accounting in the context of new organizational arrangement models. In addition, the paper makes an empirical contribution to the knowledge vacuum of the impacts and applicability of the NPM‐based management systems in developing countries. It provides information and insights for reformers to consider the social, political, and cultural environment of the implementing countries so as to prevent counter‐productive consequences that may present massive negative implications on public policy outcomes.

Sons of Something: Taxes, Lawsuits, and Local Political Control in Sixteenth-Century Castile

The widespread ennoblement of the Spanish bourgeoisie in the Early Modern period has been traditionally considered one of the main causes of the “crisis of the seventeenth century.” Using a new time series of nobility cases I provide the first quantitative assessment of Castilian ennoblement. Contrary to established scholarship, I find that the tax exemptions cannot alone explain the flight to privilege. My data show that the central motivation behind ennoblement was to gain control of local governments. Although ennoblement reflected a high level of redistributive activity, there is no evidence linking it to economic stagnation in Spain.

A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868

A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868. By Anne Sarah Rubin. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2005. Pp. x, 319. Acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, conclusion, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.) Anne Sarah Rubin's book investigates the Confederacy not as a political state but as a state of mind. Distinguishing a nation's consciousness from its manifestation in the institutions of government, Rubin probes the origins and the tenacity of Confederate national feeling. Forged in the fire of war, she argues, Confederate nationalism burned brightly between 1861 and 1865. Despite being buffeted by internal challenges (including those posed by sheer physical deprivation, sacrifice, and desertion) and by devilish Yankee invaders and fugitive slaves, many Confederates continued to hope for the best. They stomached the wrenching military setbacks at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and even the re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864, with an elan, Rubin suggests, that other scholars have not fully appreciated. In 1865, even as their government crumbled around them, Confederates clung to the notion of Confederate nationalism. In the years following the surrender at Appomattox, they hoisted high the banners of white supremacy, economic improvement, and masculine prerogative as they refashioned what Rubin calls Southern white identity. Only in 1868, she says, did Confederate ideologues stop dreaming of victory and start to consider how they might retain local political control in a Union now governed by a muscular (and hostile) federal establishment. Rubin explores nicely the sources of print culture-particularly Confederate newspapers and the private writings of Confederate citizens. She wisely links developments on the battlefield with attitudes at home. Confederate women-Mary Chesnut, Emma LeConte, Sarah Morgan, Kate Cumming, Gertrude Thomas-are accorded (quite rightly) a place at the table as residents debated the meaning of their national convictions. Rubin also offers a perceptive treatment of the complex nest of issues Confederates confronted as they faced the prospect of taking loyalty oaths to the Union, both during and after the war. She writes in fascinating ways about how some Confederates split over oath-taking-purists arguing that true Confederates could never pledge allegiance to a foreign power and pragmatists arguing that only by holding their noses and pledging allegiance to the Federals could they hope to retain political clout in the postwar South. She captures well the psychological gymnastics that white southerners performed in the wake of military defeat. …