ON SUBURBIA AND VOTING BEHAVIOR

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Notes

1 K. R. Cox, “Suburbia and Voting Behavior in the London Metropolitan Area,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 58 (1968), pp. 111 27 prompted the present discussion. The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Gerard Rushton (Michigan State University) and Julian V. Minghi (University of British Columbia) for their comments on an earlier draft. Sole responsibility for the views here expressed rests entirely with the author.

2 A. Siegfried, Tableau politique de la France de l'Ouest (Paris: Armand Colin, 1913); E. Krebheil, “Geographic Influences in British Elections,”Geographical Review, Vol. 2 (1916), pp. 419 32; A. M. Hansen, Norsk folkepsykologt (Kristiania, Norway: Jacob Dybwads, 1899).

3 See E. J. Miles, “Political Regionalism in New York State, 1860–1954” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1958); J. T. Kostabade, “Geography and Politics in Missouri” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1958); L. L. Haring, “An Analysis of Voting Behavior in Tennessee” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1959); P. Lewis, “A Geography of the Politics of Flint” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1958); A. F. Burghardt, “The Basis of Support for Political Parties in Burgenland,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 54 (1964), pp. 372 90; E. F. Van Duzer, “An Analysis of the Difference in Republican Presidential Vote in Cities and Their Suburbs” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1962).

4 V. O. Key, Jr., Southern Politics (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949); P. F. Lewis, “The Impact of Negro Migration on the Electoral Geography of Flint, Michigan, 1932–1962; A Cartographic Analysis,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 55 (1965), pp. 1–25.

5 The relevance of spatial electoral structure to political decision-making in an urban center is examined in R. E. Kasperson, “Toward A Geography of Urban Politics: Chicago, A Case Study,”Economic Geography, Vol. 41 (1965), pp. 95 107.

6 Although Cox refers to several past studies, he does not cite many of the more important contributions to the literature on voting behavior and political participation in suburban areas. Nowhere, for example, does he mention the influential and comprehensive reinterpretation of political suburbia in F. M. Wirt, “The Political Sociology of American Suburbia: A Reinterpretation,”Journal of Politics, Vol. 27 (1965), pp. 647 66. Other essential contributions which Cox does not cite include S. Greer, “The Social Structure and Political Process of Suburbia,”American Sociological Review, Vol. 25 (1960), pp. 514 26; J. Millet and D. Pittman“The New Suburban Voter: A Case Study in Electoral Behavior,”Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 39 (1958), pp. 33 42; D. Wallace, First Tuesday: A Study of Rationality in Voting, chapter entitled “Suburbia-Predestined Republicanism?” (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1964); W. C. Kaufman and S. Greer, “Voting in a Metropolitan Community: An Application of Social Area Analysis,”Social Forces, Vol. 38 (1960), pp. 196 204; C. S. Liebman, “Functional Differentiation and Political Characteristics of Suburbs,”American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 56 (1961), pp. 485 90.

The foregoing omissions may well have contributed to several debatable assertions. For example, Cox contends that “as far as central city-suburban differences in participation are concerned … the only insights come from Campbell et al” (Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 123, italics mine). In fact, there is no shortage of comparative studies. For example, see the statements on interurban variations in voter turnout in the St. Louis metropolitan area in J. C. Bollens (Ed.), Exploring the Metropolitan Community (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), pp. 87–88; suburban versus central city participation is examined in J. C. Bollens and H. J. Schmandt, The Metropolis: Its People, Politics, and Economic Life, Chapter 8, on “The Metropolitan Citizenry as Civic Participants” (New York: Harper and Row, 1965); an examination of municipality size and voter turnout for the forty-five cities of Los Angeles County is available in L. W. O'Rourke, Voting Behavior in Forty-five Cities of Los Angeles County (Los Angeles: University of California Bureau of Governmental Research, 1953), p. 104; suburban-central city differences in voting turnout and other forms of political participation in De-Kalb County (Atlanta, Georgia) are analyzed in considerable detail in A. Boskoff and H. Zeigler, Voting Patterns in a Local Election (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1964), pp. 130–38; S. Greer, Governing the Metropolis (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1962), pp. 90–93.

Likewise, the assertion by Cox that “apart from passing reference by Campbell et al …, there are no studies of intraurban variations in political participation of be examined” (Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 116, footnote 9) is also questionable; see M. Axelrod, “Urban Structure and Social Participation,”American Sociological Review, Vol. 21 (1956), pp. 13 18; M. Komarovsky, “The Voluntary Associations of Urban Dwellers,”American Sociological Review, Vol. 11 (1946), pp. 468 98; Bollens and Schmandt, op. cit., above; B. Zimmer, “Participation of Migrants in Urban Structure,”American Sociological Review, Vol. 20 (1955), pp. 218 24; A. K. Tomeh, “Informal Group Participation and Residential Patterns,”American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 70 (1964), pp. 28 35. Unfortunately Cox's discussion of political participation does not draw upon the most authoritative and useful work on the subject, L. W. Milbrath, Political Participation (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1965).

7 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 113.

8 P. H. Rossi, “Trends in Voting Behavior Research: 1933–1963,” in E. C. Dreyer and W. A. Rosenbaum (Eds.), Political Opinion and Electoral Behavior (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1966), p. 70. For a full discussion of this subject, see A. Ranney, “The Utility and Limitation of Aggregate Data in the Study of Electoral Behavior” in A. Ranney (Ed.), Essays on the Behavioral Study of Politics (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962); W. S. Robinson, “Ecological Correlations and the Behavior of Individuals,”American Sociological Review, Vol. 15 (1950), pp. 351 57; L. A. Goodman, “Some Alternatives to Ecological Correlations,”American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44 (1959), pp. 610 25.

9 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 113.

10 Dreyer and Rosenbaum, op. cit., footnote 8, p. 81.

11 A. Campbell et al, The American Voter (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1960), pp. 24–37.

12 Ibid, p. 36.

13 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 111.

14 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 111, footnote 4.

15 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 127, Table 6.

16 S. Lubell, Revolt of the Moderates (New York: Harper, 1956), p. 114.

17 D. E. Stokes et al, “Components of Electoral Decision,”American Political Science Review, Vol. 52 (1958), pp. 367 87.

18 P. E. Converse, “The Concept of a ‘Normal Vote’,” in A. Campbell et al, Elections and the Political Order (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1966).

19 Wirt, op. cit., footnote 6.

20 B. Lazerwitz, “Suburban Voting Trends, 1948–1956,”Social Forces, Vol. 39 (1960), p. 35.

21 E. S. Uyeki, “Patterns of Voting in a Metropolitan Area, 1938–1962,”Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 1 (1966), pp. 65 77.

22 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 127.

23 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, Fig. 5, p. 125, and Table 6, p. 127.

24 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 127.

25 B. M. Berger, Working-Class Suburb (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960); J. Manis and L. Stine“Suburban Residence and Political Behavior,”Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 22 (1958–59), pp. 483 89; G. E. Janasik, “The New Suburbia: Political Significance,”Current History (August, 1965), p. 93; Lazerwitz, op. cit., footnote 20, p. 36.

26 Campbell et al, op. cit., footnote 11, pp. 552–58.

27 Campbell et al, op. cit., footnote 11, pp. 454–55, footnote 14.

28 Millet and Pittman, op. cit., footnote 6, p. 41.

29 B. Berelson and G. A. Steiner, Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964), pp. 574–84; R. W. Dodge and E. S. Uyeki, “Political Affiliation and Imagery Across Two Related Generations,” in Dreyer and Rosenbaum, op. cit., footnote 8, pp. 165–74.

30 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, pp. 122, 127.

31 B. Berelson et al, Voting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), pp. 118–27.

32 S. Greer, Metropolises: A Study of Political Culture, Chapter 6, “Political Conversation: Who Talked to Whom About What—and What Came of It” (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1963), p. 136.

33 Evidence for the following can be found in R. E. Lane, Political Life, Chapter 6, “Political Discussion: Who Listens to What? Who Talks to Whom?” (New York: Free Press, 1959), pp. 80–94.

34 Campbell et al, op. cit., footnote 11, pp. 492–93.

35 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 127.

36 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 126.

37 S. Goldstein and K. B. Mayer, “Impact of Migration on the Socio-Economic Structure of Cities and Suburbs,”Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 50 (1965), pp. 5 23. See also W. Bell, “Social Choice, Life Styles, and Suburban Residence,” in W. A. Dobriner (Ed.), The Suburban Community (New York: Putnam's, 1958), pp. 225–47.

38 R. C. Wood, Suburbia, Its People and Their Politics (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958), p. 149.

39 Wirt, op. cit., footnote 6, pp. 658–62.

40 Cox, op. cit., footnote 1, p. 119, Table 4.