Repression, mobilization, and social policy: The Virginia civil rights movement and the war on poverty

Abstract

Existing research argues that repression hindered the ability of local civil rights movements to influence the development of local War on Poverty programs; however, the Virginia civil rights struggle defies this pattern. This comparative county-level study melds institutionalist accounts of welfare state development with an analysis of movement repression in order to explain this paradox. A distinction is made between situational and institutional repression. While scholars focus on the former and its negative impact on mobilization, this study suggests that institutional repression can have the opposite effect, unifying movements and facilitating their influence on the formation and implementation of poverty policy.

Citation

Brown, H.E. (2008), "Repression, mobilization, and social policy: The Virginia civil rights movement and the war on poverty", Prechel, H. (Ed.) Politics and Public Policy (Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 135-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-9935(08)17006-1