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The Persistence of de Facto Power: Elites and Economic Development in the US South, 1840-1960

Author

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  • Philipp Ager

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Abstract
Wealthy elites may end up retarding economic development for their own interests. This paper examines how the historical planter elite of the Southern US affected economic development at the county level between 1840 and 1960. To capture the planter elite’s potential to exercise de facto power, I construct a new dataset on the personal wealth of the richest Southern planters before the American Civil War. I find that counties with a relatively wealthier planter elite before the Civil War performed significantly worse in the post-war decades and even after World War II. I argue that this is the likely consequence of the planter elite’s lack of support for mass schooling. My results suggest that when during Reconstruction the US government abolished slavery and enfranchised the freedmen, the planter elite used their de facto power to maintain their influence over the political system and preserve a plantation economy based on low-skilled labor. In fact, I find that the planter elite was better able to sustain land prices and the production of plantation crops during Reconstruction in counties where they had more de facto power.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Ager, 2013. "The Persistence of de Facto Power: Elites and Economic Development in the US South, 1840-1960," Working Papers 0038, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    • Handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0038
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    File URL: https://ehes.org/wp/EHES_No38.pdf
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    1. The Persistence of de Facto Power: Elites and Economic Development in the US South, 1840-1960
      by Nicholas Gruen in Club Troppo on 2013-05-06 18:16:20

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    Cited by:

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    2. Philipp Ager & Leah Boustan & Katherine Eriksson, 2021. "The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3767-3794, November.
    3. Maurer, Stephan E., 2018. "Oil discoveries and education spending in the postbellum south," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88677, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Dupont, Brandon & Rosenbloom, Joshua L., 2018. "The economic origins of the postwar southern elite," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 119-131.
    5. Hauk, Esther & Ortega, Javier, 2015. "Schooling, Nation Building, and Industrialization: A Gellnerian Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 9048, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Maurer, Stephan E., 2019. "Oil discoveries and education provision in the Postbellum South," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    7. Logan, Trevon D., 2023. "Whitelashing: Black Politicians, Taxes, and Violence," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(2), pages 538-571, June.
    8. Bellani, Luna & Hager, Anselm & Maurer, Stephan E., 2022. "The Long Shadow of Slavery: The Persistence of Slave Owners in Southern Lawmaking," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(1), pages 250-283, March.
    9. Goodspeed, Tyler, 2015. "Slavery, Path Dependence, and Development: Evidence from the Georgia Experiment," MPRA Paper 67202, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Trevon D. Logan, 2018. "Do Black Politicians Matter?," NBER Working Papers 24190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Raouf Boucekkine & Paolo Giovanni Piacquadio & Fabien Prieur, 2016. "A Lipsetian Theory of Democratization: Development, Education, Inequality, and Resources," CESifo Working Paper Series 6283, CESifo.
    12. Raouf Boucekkine & Paolo G. Piacquadio & Fabien Prieur, 2015. "A Lipsetian Theory of Institutional Change," Working Papers hal-02797064, HAL.
    13. Esther Hauk & Javier Ortega, 2021. "Schooling, nation building and industrialization," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 33(1), pages 56-94, January.
    14. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen & Nicolai Kaarsen & Asger Moll Wingender, 2017. "Irrigation and Autocracy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 1-53.
    15. Ortega, J. & Hauk, E., 2015. "Schooling, Nation Building, and Industrialization: a Gellnerian Approach (new version)," Working Papers 15/06, Department of Economics, City University London.
    16. Lisa D. Cook & Trevon D. Logan & John M. Parman, 2017. "Racial Segregation and Southern Lynching," NBER Working Papers 23813, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    Keywords

    Long-Run Economic Development; Wealth Inequality; Elites and Development; de Facto and de Jure Power; US South;
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