Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944–1972 by Robert Mickey (review)

Southern politics is endlessly fascinating. The great V. O. Key Jr. began his seminal account on the subject with the observation, "Of books about the South there is no end" ( Southern Politics in State and Nation[New York, 1949], 1). It sometimes seems, however, that many of these books rehash the same historical events and processes. In Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944–1972, Robert Mickey breaks free of conventional themes and gives us a new, fresh, and remarkable perspective on southern politics and development. He argues that after the failure of Reconstruction, the one-party rule of the Democratic Party in southern states created "authoritarian enclaves" that controlled politics, repressed opposition parties, and racially segregated society to ensure "cheap agricultural labor and white supremacy" (pp. 4, 5). Mickey then claims that "the South's democratization—a complex macrohistorical process occurring amid great social, cultural, and economic change—is the most important development in American politics since World War II" (p. 7). He is correct that the civil rights movement and the end of Jim Crow were defining events of the twentieth century that were directly and indirectly connected to almost every facet of American politics. But the power of this book comes in its unique perspective and methodological approach adopted through a clever combination of two tools from political science subfields: American political development and comparative politics.

Mickey carefully traces the process of democratization in three Deep South states: South Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia. He starts with an overview of his approach before considering the creation of the authoritarian enclaves and their demise, which Mickey argues began with the Supreme Court's elimination of the whites-only Democratic primary in Smith v. Allwright(1944). There were clear differences in how states managed this era of change and crisis, even in the Deep South. The centralized nature of governance and "cohesive elite networks" in South Carolina led to "strategic accommodation of democratization" that "harnessed the revolution" and resulted in a smoother transition away from white supremacy but a bleak future for the Democratic Party (p. 29). In Mississippi, state authority was decentralized, which empowered white supremacist factions, provoked federal intervention, and generated a "protracted democratization" that injured the sovereignty that state leaders demanded and slowed economic development (p. 30). Georgia went through a "bifurcated democratization," with leaders in Atlanta and much of northern Georgia harnessing the revolution while white supremacists in the southern counties resisted and thus delayed the process (p. 6). Mickey argues for the agency of elites and their challengers and demonstrates that their interactions along with "[p]arty-state capacity" produced different paths out of Dixie (p. 6).

This book should be read by all historians and political scientists who study southern politics and by those who study American political history and development more broadly. Mickey brings together the insights and approaches of the literature on comparative politics, social movements, race, American political development, and history in this sweeping account of democratization in the South that transcends disciplines to offer a new view of something many of us thought we already understood well. It is immediately clear that an enormous amount of archival research and careful thought went into this project. The use of comparative case study methodology demystifies the region and allows for a "cross-national perspective" that is often lacking (p. 351). Moreover, Mickey demonstrates that there was significant variation in the political development of the solid South. This approach helps focus ongoing scholarly efforts to reveal complexity and diversity across the southern states, rather than conformity and homogeneity. If I had one criticism, it would be that we only get...