Political Divisions in Large Cities: The Socio-Spatial Basis of Legislative Behavior in Chicago and Toronto

Contemporary cities are frequently characterized as divided by race and socioeconomic status, yet the political effects of segregation and stratification are rarely fully explored. Urban politics scholars have disagreed on whether urban politics is essentially consensual, conflicts are issue-based and transitory, or social and economic divides generate enduring political cleavages. We contribute to this debate with an analysis of elite conflict as manifested in recorded city council votes in two large, heterogeneous North American cities, Chicago and Toronto, over a multidecade period. The analysis employs a new technique for analyzing the dimensionality of roll-call votes. We find evidence of durable coordination among ward councilors in both cities; however, the substance of conflict differs. Correlating the dimensions of voting behavior with ward characteristics indicates that Chicago’s aldermen divide on racial lines, whereas Toronto’s councilors primarily divide on the place characteristics of wards and secondarily on socioeconomic status.