Are All Politics Local? A Case Study of Local Conditions in a Period of “Law and Order” Politics

Abstract

This article explores how voters in Contra Costa County, California, came to support aggressive criminal justice policies that helped to drive prison growth. As this case study shows, the antitax movement’s successes in the latter 1970s had important implications for local and state politics and government that ultimately shaped support for the law and order movement. Institutional structures, especially the state’s easily accessible proposition process and the considerable political power of homeowners, facilitated the antitax movement’s successes. This reflected and reinforced deep tensions between state and local government and created new problems and dilemmas for state and local lawmakers. Politically, the antitax movement’s successes helped to mobilize a powerful constituency of affluent property owners receptive to tough anticrime measures and provided a blueprint for the law and order movement’s political success. While state and local lawmakers struggled to manage new challenges, increasingly active and well-organized law and order campaigns thrived in state and local environments.