Rural Politics in the United States

Scholars of American politics have recently turned their attention to rural politics, aiming to understand the late twentieth and early twenty-first century nationwide shift of white rural voters to the Republican Party and the ensuing rural–urban political divide. We review research that assesses the potential causes of the rise of place-based polarization, including political–economic transformation, racism, ethnocentrism, and the growing salience of social issues. We also consider its consequences, such as increased levels of social polarization and institutional threats to democracy. Most research to date has focused on individuals, whether to specify rural identity and its correlates or to probe public opinion and political behavior. We recommend that scholars broaden their scope of inquiry to include factors at the meso and macro levels by studying the interplay between place and institutions, public policies, and organizations as well as broader political, economic, and social developments. This will entail attention to change over time. We suggest that scholars resist cordoning off this research area into rural studies and instead engage with broad questions about the functioning of American democracy.