Contentious Federalism: Sheriffs, State Legislatures, and Political Violence in the American West
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Contentious Federalism: Sheriffs, State Legislatures, and Political Violence in the American West Zoe Nemerever1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Despite the extensive literature probing individual motivations for committing political violence, little existing academic research directly examines the role of local governments in encouraging political violence. I use a federalism perspective to consider how subnational governments can decrease the perceived costs of high-risk political violence against the state. This paper introduces three novel datasets to substantiate my theories: political violence against Bureau of Land Management employees, land transfer legislation in state legislatures, and a roster of constitutionalist sheriffs. As emblems of the contentious relationship between rural land users and the federal government, employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) routinely deal with threats, harassment, and physical violence from civilians who are incensed by restrictions on the use of federal land. Counties with constitutionalist sheriffs are 50% more likely to have violence against BLM employees than other counties, even when controlling for other factors. Additionally, levels of political violence are higher in years following the passage of land transfer legislation in the state legislature. Elected officials’ legislative activity, campaign promises, and law enforcement decisions all may promote political violence against federal employees. Incorporating federalism into the study of political violence uncovers how the actions of elected officials at the state and county levels can lower the perceived costs of violence against the national government. Keywords Political violence · Federalism · Sheriffs · Public land · State legislatures
Introduction In 2014, a dozen Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees engaged in a standoff against four hundred armed protestors while attempting to round up Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle for unlawfully grazing on public land. The encounter * Zoe Nemerever [email protected] 1
Department of Political Science, University of California San Diego, Social Sciences Building 301, 9500 Gilman Drive #0521, La Jolla, CA 92093‑0521, USA
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followed a decade of government warnings as Mr. Bundy accumulated over a million dollars of unpaid grazing fees. Local sheriffs implicitly sided with Mr. Bundy and his supporters by refusing the BLM’s requests for backup support. The standoff ended when the BLM retreated.1 Following the standoff, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell issued a memo to all Department of Interior field employees that emphasized personal safety and how to avoid confrontations with civilians. Additionally, the BLM abandoned all of its posts in southern Nevada for 2 years following the Bundy standoff. Strong political and moral convictions can inspire political violence, such as the Black Panthers (Davenport 2009) during the Civil Rights Movement, the Ku
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