The Changing Regional Subcultures of the American States and the Utility of a New Cultural Measure

Abstract

This study analyzes changes in the regional subcultures of the United States using 2000 census and religious survey data. The results suggest a remarkable degree of continuity with those the authors identified in an earlier study. In addition, they demonstrate that a new multidimensional measure of state culture does a much better job in predicting social and political behavior than other frequently used indicators. Finally, they show how their new measure of state culture significantly reduces and often eliminates the problem of spatial autocorrelation in many state-level indicators that cannot be explained by differences in economic development and racial—ethnic diversity.

The Influence of Women Legislators on State Health Care Spending for the Poor

“…Others, like Lieske [86] combine elements of Elazar's and Hero and Tolbert's measures and also incorporate religious affiliations and other relevant social structures to create eleven subcultural categories. Additional research suggests its importance, however, calling for its inclusion [18].…”

Place, Time, and Philanthropy: Exploring Geographic Mobility and Philanthropic Engagement

“…Northerners moving to the South from either the Midwest or the Northeast may encounter informal Southern philanthropic systems that have been influenced by centuries of political and racial divisions as well as strong religious traditions. These differences may be particularly sharp in the “Black Belt” subcultures of the south (Lieske ). An empirical example of this difference is that although 28.4 percent of volunteers in the Northeast reported volunteering for religious organizations, 40.6 percent of volunteers in the South reported volunteering for religious organizations (Corporation for National and Community Service ).…”

Narrative transparency

“…These websites were found on a national database for CSAs (Wilson College, n.d.). This database allowed us to sample systematically CSAs across the considerable regional cultural diversity represented in the United States (Arbesman, 2012;Elazar, 1984;Garreau, 1981;Lieske, 1993Lieske, , 2010. Second, assessment of corporate communications through websites is well established in research examining corporate initiatives that respond to public demands for greater corporate citizenship, transparency, and responsibility (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007;Gomez & Chalmeta, 2011).…”