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Causal inference and American political development: the case of the gag rule

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffery A. Jenkins

    (University of Southern California)

  • Charles Stewart

    (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

We investigate the “gag rule”, a parliamentary device that from 1836 to 1844 barred the US House of Representatives from receiving petitions concerning the abolition of slavery. In the mid-1830s, the gag rule emerged as a partisan strategy to keep slavery off the congressional agenda, amid growing abolitionist agitation in the North. Very quickly, however, the strategy backfired, as the gag rule was framed successfully as a mechanism that encroached on white northerners’ rights of petition. By 1844, popular pressure had become so great that many northern Democrats, an important bloc of prior gag rule supporters, yielded to electoral pressure, broke party ranks, and voted to rescind the rule, thereby sealing its fate. More generally, the politics of the gag rule provide an interesting causal-inference case study of the interplay between social movement development and congressional politics before the Civil War.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffery A. Jenkins & Charles Stewart, 2020. "Causal inference and American political development: the case of the gag rule," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 429-457, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:185:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11127-019-00754-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-019-00754-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carpenter, Daniel & Moore, Colin D., 2014. "When Canvassers Became Activists: Antislavery Petitioning and the Political Mobilization of American Women," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 479-498, August.
    2. Jamie L. Carson & Erik J. Engstrom, 2005. "Assessing the Electoral Connection: Evidence from the Early United States," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(4), pages 746-757, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Congress; Gag rule; Slavery; Causal inference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • N41 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913

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