A New Suburban Politics

Abstract

Examination of voting, registration, and census data for 1958, 1960 and 1962 for Los Angeles County revealed unexpected political behavior. Suburbs were selected on the basis of top decile rankings for owner-occupancy, single-unit structures, and housing (all built 1950-60). Suburbs were not only substantially Democratic, but there were several unexpected patterns of association (e.g., a negative association between votilng Democratic and age of housing). Further research revealed two suburbs: new suburbs (built 1950-60) had middleincome families and were Democratic; old suburbs (built 1946-49) had high-income families and were Republican. These findings support the transfer (screening) thesis and cast further doubt on the chameleon (conversion) thesis. ollowing Worlcl War II, emirgirlg suburban areas of the United States appeared to be growing centers of solid support for the Republican party.' Dwigl-ht D. Eisen, Based on Clharles G. Bell, Suburban Political Behavior in Los Angeles County, California, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern Californiia, 1966. 1 Suburbs are hardly a phenlomenoln of metropolitan areas. As Lewis Mumford points out: . . the fact is that suburbs became visible almost as early as the city itself. . .. From the beginning, the privileges and delights of suburbanism were reserved largely for the upper class. . .. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.101 on Sun, 09 Oct 2016 05:38:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW SUBURBAN POLITICS 281 hower's resounding victories in 1952 and 1956 seemed olily to confirm the fact, and before long sociologists, political scientists, and public opinion pollsters were proclaiming it.2 Cause for the phenomenon was usually attributed to either the chameleon (conversion) process, or to the tranisfer (screening) process. The former implied that central city Democrats who moved to suburbs acquired not only station wagons and split-level tract homes but a Republican identification as well.3 The transfer thesis held that those who could afford the move to suburbia were Republicans to begin with.4 In either case, suburbs were considered terra Republi-