Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T01:19:08.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reconsidering Political Regionalism in the American States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

James G. Gimpel  and
Jason E. Schuknecht
James G. Gimpel
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Jason E. Schuknecht
Affiliation:
Westat, Inc.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Political scientists, historians, pundits, and campaign managers have often sought to understand electoral politics by examining intrastate political geography. But what practical or theoretical contribution can political geography make when we have the powerful tool of survey research? We use a geographic statistic to identify regional nodes in four states, for the 1928–36 and 1988–2000 presidential elections. By weighting county-level election returns for their contribution to the total statewide vote for each party, we find that traditional regional characterizations of these states' politics are altered dramatically. We find that the parties typically compete on the same turf, making clear sectional distinctions harder to draw. Furthermore, over time within three of these four states, the Democratic vote has become more geographically concentrated, while the Republican vote has become more geographically dispersed. These findings have implications for the organization of statewide governing coalitions, the cost of party mobilization efforts, and the study of candidate emergence and success.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Winter 2002 , pp. 325 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association, 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, James E., Murray, Richard W., and Farley, Edward L.. 1992. Texas Politics: An Introduction. 6th ed. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Anselin, Luc. 1988. Spatial Econometrics: Methods and Models. Boston, MA: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anselin, Luc. 1995a. “Local Indicators of Spatial Association—LISA.” Geographical Analysis 27 (2): 93–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anselin, Luc. 1995b. “SPACESTAT Version 1.80 User's Guide.” Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Regional Research Institute.Google Scholar
Bai, Matt. 2001. “Red Zone vs. Blue Zone.” Newsweek, January 22.Google Scholar
Baldassare, Mark. 2000. California in the New Millennium. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berelson, Bernard R., Lazarsfeld, Paul F., and McPhee, William N.. 1954. Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Election. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Berkman, Michael, and Eisenstein, James. 1999. “State Legislators as Congressional Candidates: The Effects of Prior Experience on Legislative Recruitment and Fundraising.” Political Research Quarterly 52: 481–498.Google Scholar
Black, Earl, and Black, Merle. 1987. Politics and Society in the South. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cho, Wendy Tam. N.d. “Contagion Effects and Ethnic Contribution Networks.” American Journal of Political Science. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Colby, Peter W., and White, John Kenneth. 1989. New York State Today. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Cook, Rhodes. 1997. “Suburbia: Land of Varied Faces and a Growing Political Force.”Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 55 (May 24): 1209–1217.Google Scholar
Dent, Borden D. 1999. Cartography: Thematic Map Design. Boston, MA: WCB McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Elazar, Daniel J. 1983. American Federalism: A View from the States. 3rd ed. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Elazar, Daniel. 1994. The American Mosaic. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Fenno, Richard. 1978. Home Style. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Gimpel, James G. 1996. National Elections and the Autonomy of American State Party Systems. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Gimpel, James G. 1999. Separate Destinations: Migration, Immigration and the Politics of Places. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gimpel, James G., and Schuknecht, Jason E.. 2002. “Political and Demographic Foundations for Sectionalism in State Politics: The Connecticut Case.” American Politics Research 30: 193–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gimpel, James G., and Schuknecht, Jason E.. In press. Patchwork Nation: Sectionalism in American State Politics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Glaser, James M. 1996. Race, Campaign Politics and the Realignment in the South. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goodchild, Michael F. 1986. Spatial Autocorrelation. Catmog 47. Norwich, UK: Geo Books.Google Scholar
Gove, Samuel K., and Nowlan, James D.. 1996. Illinois Politics and Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Griffith, Daniel A. 1987. Spatial Autocorrelation: A Primer. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers.Google Scholar
Griffith, Daniel A., and Amrhein, Carl G.. 1991. Statistical Analysis for Geographers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Hahn, Harlan. 1971. Urban-Rural Conflict: The Politics of Change. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Haining, Robert. 1990. Spatial Data Analysis in the Social and Environmental Sciences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammarberg, Melvyn. 1974. “Indiana Farmers and the Group Basis of the Late Nineteenth-Century Political Parties.” The Journal of American History 61: 91–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrnson, Paul S. 1995. Congressional Elections: Campaigning at Home and in Washington. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Hogan, Robert E. 1999. “Campaign and Contextual Influences on Voter Participation in State Legislative Elections.” American Politics Quarterly 27: 403–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, Plutzer, Eric, and Sprague, John. 1993. “Alternative Contexts of Political Behavior: Churches, Neighborhoods, and Individuals.” Journal of Politics 55: 365–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, and Sprague, John. 1992. “Political Parties and Electoral Mobilization: Political Structure and the Party Canvass.” American Political Science Review 86: 70–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 1990. “The Effects of Campaign Spending in House Elections: New Evidence for Old Arguments.” American Journal of Political Science. 34: 334–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Richard. 1971. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Richard J., Shelley, Fred M., and Taylor, Peter J., eds. 1990. Developments in Electoral Geography. London, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jones, Eugene, Ericson, Joe E., Brown, Lyle C., Trotter, Robert S. Jr., and Langeneggar, Joyce A.. 1998. Practicing Texas Politics. 10th ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Key, V.O. Jr. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Key, V.O. Jr. 1956. American State Politics: An Introduction. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul. 1970. The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850-1900. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Krasno, Jonathan, and Green, Donald Philip. 1988. “Preempting Quality Challengers in House Elections.” Journal of Politics 50: 920–936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuklinski, James H., Cobb, Michael D., and Gilens, Martin. 1997. “Racial Attitudes and the ‘New South’.” Journal of Politics 59: 323–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamis, Alexander P. 1988. The Two-Party South. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, David. 1995. California: The Politics of Diversity. Minneapolis, MN: West Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1981. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lockard, Duane. 1954. “Legislative Politics in Connecticut.” American Political Science Review 48: 166–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockard, Duane. 1959. New England State Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meinig, D. W. 1969. Imperial Texas: An Interpretive Essay in Cultural Geography. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Monmonier, Mark. 1993. Mapping It Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monmonier, Mark. 1996. How to Lie with Maps. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, P. A. P. 1948. “The Interpretation of Statistical Maps.” Biometrika 35: 255–260.Google Scholar
Shaw, Daron R. 1999. “The Effect of TV Ads and Candidate Appearance on Statewide Presidential Votes, 1988-1996.” American Political Science Review 93: 345–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundquist, James L. 1983. Dynamics of the Party System. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Voss, D. Stephen. 1996. “Beyond Racial Threat: Failure of an Old Hypothesis in the New South.” Journal of Politics 58: 1156–1170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wielhouwer, Peter W. 1999. “The Mobilization of Campaign Activists by the Party Canvass.” American Politics Quarterly 27: 177–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar