Co-sponsored by Division 11: Comparative Politics
Full Paper Panel with Virtual Participation
Participants:
- (Chair) Jorge G Mangonnet, Vanderbilt University
- (Discussant) Vasiliki Fouka, Stanford University
- (Discussant) Asli Cansunar, University of Washington
- (Discussant) Edgar Franco Vivanco, University of Michigan
Session Description:
This panel explores patterns of exclusion, representation, and popular resistance by underrepresented groups across diverse historical and geographic settings. It examines how periods of enfranchisement, marginalization, oppression, and insurrection have affected the mobilization of historically disenfranchised ethnic, racial, and religious groups, as well as the creation and persistence of institutions designed to control them. By examining the interplay between state-building efforts and identity politics, the panel sheds light on critical processes of institutional development, identity-based conflict, and nation-making. Through case studies spanning colonial and post-colonial contexts, the panel investigates how underrepresented groups navigated political systems explicitly structured to exclude them—often leveraging identity as a strategic tool for collective action—while local elites exploited these systems to stifle mobilization and secure their power. The questions explored in this panel are deeply connected to the 2025 APSA conference theme of “Reimagining Politics, Power, and Peoplehood in Crisis Times.”
Bosley, Phadnis, and Zaw examine the evolution of identity-based political blocs in British India’s colonial legislature, showing how the expansion of the electoral franchise deepened religious and class divisions among Indigenous legislators. Marcellin and Mangonnet analyze how slave resistance in the American South was influenced by sensationalist media coverage of the Haitian Revolution, highlighting how cognitive heuristics shaped identity and resistance behaviors despite oppressive conditions. Callis and Carter explore how the manipulation of voter registration in 1931 Peru, through the lens of elite identities, shaped the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of the electorate in the first mass participation elections. Dunning examines how the regulation of slavery in imperial Brazil contributed to the construction of an autonomous state bureaucracy, challenging the power of slaveholder elites through legal mechanisms. Johnson-Kanu analyzes the influence of colonial land cessions on post-colonial identity and political participation in West Africa, showing how resistance to colonization shaped local perceptions of belonging and state legitimacy.
Together, these five papers offer important insights into the historical relationship between power, identity, and political mobilization.
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