Secret voting counts and democracy movement. The political goals of the reform movement for the 'Australian Ballot' in the USA

Modern research on electoral history is based on Stein Rokkan's evolutionary model, which was developed in studies on the history of voting rights in european countries. In this model, secret voting counts as a strong indicator for democracy. The paper discusses the close connection between secret voting and democracy from the perspective of the us-american case. In most american states secret voting - called 'Australian Ballot' - was introduced in the decade between 1888-98. The paper pays particular attention to the struggles to introduce secret voting in two states - Massachusetts and Louisiana - and analyses the goals of the conflicting parties. The result looks paradoxical from the standpoint of modern democratic theory: in both states secret voting found strong support by political groups and parties which wanted to get rid of the the poor immigrant and the afro-american vote. At least in the south, the Australian Ballot became an effective instrument to keep afro-americans out of political power.