AHC: Socialist Union, Authoritarian South

As the title suggests. How do we end up with a Socialist Union of America (i.e - the north) and how do we end up with an Authoritarian South/Dixie.

Now with this being before 1900, it allows the civil war to be used so it may be possible i'd imagine.

My take would be that the South win the civil war and either the Mason-Dixon line, or perhaps otl Virginia and North Carolina becomes the border. That's I guess where it would start at least.
 
This actually a fairly popular sort of conclusion to take, but it's not hard to see why.

With the South winning, the quasi-aristocratic system they have would probably harden over time and their stance on slavery would more or less cut them off from most of the world in general. This in turn would cause economic hardships over time, especially if the US uses its influence to do so. I figure that some sort of authortative figure would rise in the South as a response to this.

The North meanwhile would probably continue its industry and probably have to readjust things over time. Not sure if socialism would ever rise fully per say, but I do figure perhaps a more leftist one.
 
This actually a fairly popular sort of conclusion to take, but it's not hard to see why.

With the South winning, the quasi-aristocratic system they have would probably harden over time and their stance on slavery would more or less cut them off from most of the world in general. This in turn would cause economic hardships over time, especially if the US uses its influence to do so. I figure that some sort of authortative figure would rise in the South as a response to this.

The North meanwhile would probably continue its industry and probably have to readjust things over time. Not sure if socialism would ever rise fully per say, but I do figure perhaps a more leftist one.

Well assuming some form of economic hardship occurs in the north, maybe the business friendly practices lead the people to some kind of revolution.
 
This actually a fairly popular sort of conclusion to take, but it's not hard to see why.

With the South winning, the quasi-aristocratic system they have would probably harden over time and their stance on slavery would more or less cut them off from most of the world in general. This in turn would cause economic hardships over time, especially if the US uses its influence to do so. I figure that some sort of authortative figure would rise in the South as a response to this.

The North meanwhile would probably continue its industry and probably have to readjust things over time. Not sure if socialism would ever rise fully per say, but I do figure perhaps a more leftist one.

Well, the lose of the South would have a real cultural shake-up effect on the North and lead to a potential crisis of identity. The Union would want to develop ideological bases around which to unify and reduce regionalism and thus future secessionist sentiments as well as create the ideological framework to demonize the a Southern rebellion and defend the democratic ideals in an era where democracy/romantic liberalism seemed to be collapsing in Europe and hopes of liberal stable states forming in Latin America were being dashed.

Given that, I can see the rhetorical culture of the a North being the cry of "Free Labor, Free Citizens who's vote ought to matter on a material level rather than being overturned by oligarchic whims. That's the path to modernity." Unity of purpose/dedication to the principals required to defend individuals from exploitation would be seen as a kind of "Citizen-guild" needed to defend the last bastion of liberty from the Lords and Slavocrats who, though few in number, usually won out in the end and were winning across the world now by dividing the masses and pitting them against one another (Populist-Nationalism, essentially) and artificially cutting off the avenues to rise in class by withholding education, using religious conformity to produce hierarchal obedience (fitting into existing Anti-Catholic sentiment), selective application of violence, ect. The master-slave analogy could be used here, since the basic means of repression would synch up there, later on finding how it echoed Marx and Engels.
 
Given that, for close to a century after the Civil War, the South was basically a one-party region, turning the CSA into an authoritarian democracy is a very high likelihood. Especially given that the South would have no incentive to open voting to women and minorities and may even restrict it to property owners in many areas, the CSA would be a democracy in name only and the Bill of Rights would be nothing more than a polite suggestion that states would wipe their collective asses with.

Turning the North socialist would be tougher. More liberal than the South, sure, but it would take massive urbanization, a stronger response to the Great Depression (basically what FDR did tripled and the whole nation on board with it) and any white vs black racial strife turned more into standard-issue ethnic strife, with blacks at least on par with Irish or immigrants after a generation or two.
 
Turning the North socialist would be tougher. More liberal than the South, sure, but it would take massive urbanization, a stronger response to the Great Depression (basically what FDR did tripled and the whole nation on board with it) and any white vs black racial strife turned more into standard-issue ethnic strife, with blacks at least on par with Irish or immigrants after a generation or two.

Great Depression is butterflied away by any serious measure. As for urbanization, that's not nessicerily required: the Grainger movement ( https://www.britannica.com/event/Granger-movement) and later anti-monopolistic/pro-collectivist farmers' movements would provide a strong framework for Progressive-style rural socialist sympathies, who could easily align with the urban proletariate to push for socialist measures first on a local organizational level, than working their way up through the ranks of government as part of the trend towards the consolidation of federal power. Race relations could be warmed up as part of a self-righteous reaction to the South, or removed by just not getting a large black population (The North was basically empty of them, especially low skilled ones, and is less likely to see any mass movements which result in slow/non assimilating ethnic enclaves with the Southern government and society tightly policing them)
 
The South wins the Civil War and ultimately becomes a quasi-Aristocratic Republic via the Planters. The 1877 Railway Strikes in the North result in a Revolution, building upon the French Commune and also tapping into latent unrest left over from the defeat in the Civil War.
 
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