The Comparative Politics Workshop warmly invites you to Fatih Cetin: RACIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT AS A DISTINCT ACT DEMOCRATIZATION: THE CASE OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT IN THE UNITED STATES.

The talk will take place on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Thompson 402.

Remote access also available via Zoom: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/99909311091

Talk Abstract: This talk will explore the origins of the Voting Rights Act in the United States, and its implications for democratization literature. Through an analysis of the interplay between domestic and global spheres of politics, the interaction of exogenous and endogenous factors, and the confluence of changing background conditions, discursive battles, civic and political organizing, and political ingenuities, I will demonstrate how a counter-hegemonic group with an expanded notion of American democracy and citizenship and their dominance over contending groups within the formal key governing institutional bodies played a crucial role in the materialization of this democratizing reform. The aim of this talk is to provide a complex account of the Voting Rights Act, and to address the blind-spot in democratization literature with regards to the suffrage extension to racialized minorities.