The Rural Side of the Urban-Rural Gap

Abstract

The time does seem to be ripe for revisiting the urban-rural divide, with an eye toward understanding what lies beneath it. The last two presidential elections have revealed an urban-rural cleavage that is hard to ignore. Most observers now recognize that the “red” vs. “blue” Election Night maps really mask an urban-rural divide within states—a gap that has increased in recent years according to a range of definitions. In 2004, the difference in Democratic support between the most and least populous counties in the nation exceeded 25 points (see Figure 1). Survey marginals are comparable, although rural populations are not well represented in most national polls. Tabulations from the 2004 American National Election Studies (ANES) indicate a 20-point gap in presidential preference between inhabitants of counties with more than a million people and those in non-metro counties of less than 25,000.

Citizenship education for proactive democratic life in rural communities

“…For example, a strong sense of place could motivate a rural citizen's involvement in local politics. Other attributes common in rural communities, such as self-reliance, volunteerism, and a high sense of civic duty (Gimpel and Karnes, 2006), offer potential for improving democratic engagement. While promising, these attributes must be moderated with the recognition that they do not necessarily foster the critical awareness and collective action some democratic scholars promote (Parker, 1994;Westheimer and Kahne, 2004).…”

Suburban Origins of the Tea Party: Spatial Dimensions of the New Conservative Personality

“…In broad terms, there is consistent empirical evidence for a strong association between national voting patterns and the urban/suburban/exurban divide, suggesting that the less 'urban' an area is, the more its residents choose conservative political candidates (Fischer, 1978;Gainsborough, 2001;Gimpel and Karnes, 2006;Lang and Sanchez, 2006;McKee and Shaw, 2003). Unfortunately, there is scant data collected at the finer level of regional typology, but what we can see from the data that does exist is that a clear pattern emerges between how people vote and their residential distance from urban centers.…”

Religion and regionalism : congregants, culture and city-county consolidation in Louisville, Kentucky.

“…As Wuthnow (1988) (Abramowitz andSaunders, 2005, 2008;Gimpel and Karnes, 2006;Sperling, et al, 2004). Some scholars debate this perspective arguing that the culture war is a myth and most Americans reside somewhere in the tolerant middle (Fiorina, 2005;Ansolabehere, Rodden, and Snyder, 2006;Wolfe, 1999).…”