Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: When do national political elites concede to social movement demands for the extension of voting rights to those who are excluded because of their race? This paper proposes a two-step answer, such that racial democratization occurs at the confluence of two coalitional conditions: regime coalition fission, or the dissolution of the ruling party's support base due to the defection of key sectors, and the formation of a coalition between suffragist and working-class social movement organizations. The paper also hypothesizes intermediary, cooptive outcomes that occur when just one of the two conditions is met and presents some supporting evidence from the American civil rights and South African antiapartheid movements.