Urbanism and Voter Turnout: A Note on Some Unexpected Findings

Abstract

Past literature has been unclear as to the relationship between urban/rural residence and voting turnout. Aggregate analysis of turnout within Illinois reveals a strong tendency for rural areas to have much higher turnout than urban. Furthermore, these rural areas have lower levels of education, income, and industrialization, so that these variables cannot account for higher- turnout levels, nor can the observed patterns be accounted for by the historical pattern of political culture. Several theoretical arguments which might explain the findings are examined. Political scientists have always been concerned with all types of political participation, and voter turnout is undoubtedly the most widely studied and substantively important measure of participation. One variable which is potentially associated with turnout-residence in an urban or rural area-has received rather less attention than the research to be presented here would suggest is warranted. Most general treatments either ignore the urban-rural dimension as a relevant factor or else repeat the oft-cited but seldomdocumented generalization that turnout is higher in more urban areas. The summary of findings in Milbrath (1965, pp. 128-130) cites findings on both sides of the question but leaves the impression that large urban areas probably have higher rates of participation. On the other hand, Nie, Powell, and Prewitt (1969) find no relationship between urbanization and turnout. Yet the notion that urban voters are more likely to participate has become entrenched in the literature and is flatly asserted in countless textbooks. Thus, when a thorough aggregate analysis of electoral participation in West Virginia (Johnson, 1971) found that the most rural and economically underdeveloped areas in a rural and underdeveloped state tended to have high levels of turnout, the author apparently felt it necessary to present those findings as a deviant case. It shall be one purpose of the research here to determine whether the West Virginia case is indeed unique. The results of the most thorough empirical analysis of political participation in the U.S. (Verba and