Political Order in the Modernizing Mormon Kingdom, 1887-1896
Abstract
How does federal intervention impact subnational social and religious institutions? Interpreting Utah Territory during the Gilded Age as subnational illiberal authoritarian regime, this dissertation provides a new way of apprehending the Mormon West. This dissertation examines the adoption of national political parties in Utah Territory in the late nineteenth century. Specifically, it analyzes how the Republican Party coerced the subnational regime in Utah into patronage relationship and how the subnational elite responded to this coercion by strategically dividing the Mormon voting bloc equally to ensure access to political patronage from either party. Using archival materials from politicians on the national stage, the subnational Mormon elite and local church officers as well as local Mormon women and men, this dissertation provides further evidence that state intervention into subnational regimes can be understood as potentially reinforcing subnational regimes by coopting them. This dissertation further shows the importance of the role of state intervention to the study of illiberal subnational regimes.^
This paper has been withdrawn.