Full Citation

Title: The Road to Division: Interstate Highways and Geographic Polarization

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: What explains geographic polarization, the tendency of Americans to live near fellow partisans? Existing theories suggest that segregation of all kinds can be explained by the aggregate exercise of individual preferences for homogeneity, or by discriminatory public policies that limit residential choice. While both of these factors explain sorting, this article considers an alternative explanation: that public policies that facilitate mobility make partisan geographic sorting easier and contribute to geographic polarization. I test this theory by examining the political consequences of the largest transportation program in American history: the Interstate Highway System. Combining data from a federal highway construction database with county-level presidential election results, I use matching and regression to demonstrate that suburban counties with Interstates became more Republican than they would have been otherwise. I then show that metropolitan areas with greater Interstate density became more geographically polarized than comparable areas with fewer Interstates. The observed effects are especially strong in the South, where highways opened rural areas to industrialization and suburbanization. These findings demonstrate that policies can change politics not only by influencing individual behavior, but also by influencing citizens geographic distribution.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Nall, Clayton

Publisher: Stanford University

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Housing and Segregation, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

Countries: