Delivering the Vote: The Political Effect of Free Mail Delivery in Early Twentieth Century America

Abstract

The rollout of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the early twentieth century dramatically increased the frequency with which rural voters received information. This article examines the effect of RFD on voters' and Representatives' behavior using a panel dataset and instrumental variables. Communities receiving more routes spread their votes to more parties; there is no evidence it changed turnout. RFD shifted positions taken by Representatives in line with rural constituents, including increased support for pro-temperance and anti-immigration policies. These results appear only in counties with newspapers, supporting the hypothesis that information flows play a crucial role in the political process.“As the whole world has been drawn closer together by the inventions and uses of steam and electricity, so farmers may be drawn closer together by the universal practice of free delivery.”—Matthew Williams of Verndale, Minnesota as quoted in the 1900 Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture

Evolutionary Psychology and Artificial Intelligence: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Behaviour

“…ICT and AI may also reduce the sort of localised social cohesion that is critical to many forms of well-being and political engagement, by diverting social attention to others with shared interests in topics that are not geographically centred. In this, it continues and expands on trends of mass media known since the beginning of the information age with, for example, the advent of national newspapers (Perlman and Sprick Schuster, 2016). For a substantial fraction of our society, the time we spend engaging with others as real, physical equals is replaced with ever-more-engaging digital entertainment.…”

The Electric Telegraph, News Coverage and Political Participation

“…The paper is closely related to the literature on the political impacts of newspapers (Gentzkow et al, 2011;Perlman and Sprick Schuster, 2016;Drago et al, 2014;Schulhofer-Wohl and Garrido, 2013;Snyder and Strömberg, 2010;Bruns and Himmler, 2011;Gerber et al, 2009;George and Waldfogel, 2006;Boix et al, 2003). While previous studies have focused on the impacts of newspapers on some political outcomes, this paper examines the impact of a revolutionary technology on newspapers themselves, which has received little attention in the literature.…”