The Growing Rural-Urban Political Divide and Democratic Vulnerability

• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211070061
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: How Spatial Organization Endangers Democracy

130 ANNALS, AAPSS, 699, January 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211070061

The Growing

Rural-Urban

Political Divide

and Democratic

Vulnerability

By

SUZANNE METTLER

and

TREVOR BROWN

1070061ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYRURAL-URBAN POLITICAL DIVIDE AND DEMOCRATIC VULNERABILITY

research-article2021

Throughout American history and as recently as the

early 1990s, each of the major political parties included

both rural and some urban constituencies, but since

then the nation has become deeply divided geographi-

cally. Rural areas have become increasingly dominated

by the Republican Party and urban places by the

Democratic Party. This growing rural-urban divide is

fostering polarization and democratic vulnerability. We

examine why this cleavage might endanger democracy,

highlighting various mechanisms: the combination of

long-standing political institutions that give extra lever-

age to sparsely populated places with a transformed

party system in which one party dominates those

places; growing social divergence between rural and

urban areas that fosters “us” versus “them” dynamics;

economic changes that make rural areas ripe for griev-

ance politics; and party leaders willing to cater to such

resentments. We present empirical evidence that this

divide is threatening democracy and consider how it

might be mitigated.

keywords: rural-urban divide; democratic backsliding;

geographic polarization; political parties

The United States’ fractious political polari-

zation increasingly endangers basic pillars

of democracy. This is evidenced by many

Republicans’ continued denial of President Joe

Biden’s victory, by the violent insurrection on

the U.S. Capitol and Republican officials’

unwillingness to investigate it, and by efforts by

many state legislatures to scale back voting

Suzanne Mettler is John L. Senior Professor of American

Institutions at Cornell University. She is the co-author

of Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American

Democracy (with Robert C. Lieberman; Macmillan

2020), and co-editor of Democratic Resilience: Can the

United States Withstand Rising Polarization? (with

Lieberman and Kenneth M. Roberts; Cambridge

University Press 2021).

Trevor Brown is a PhD student at Cornell University.

His research interests include political economy,

American political development, and public policy.

Correspondence: suzanne.mettler@cornell.edu