The Influence of Metropolitan Party Pluralities in Presidential Elections Since 1920: A Study of Twelve Key Cities

In recent years, party theorists have been much concerned over the validity of the sectional interpretation of American politics. One contention is that sectionalism, if still valid, is being modified, or supplemented, by an urbanrural party alignment which bodes major change for the future. This intuition is of comparatively recent vintage, certainly not a product of the study of political trends before the New Deal, although one writer has attempted to construe a specific earlier election in terms of the tension between urban and rural areas. In the 1920's, however, most analysts decried the urban-rural thesis. Professor Holcombe, writing in 1924, asserted that “whatever may be the cause of the existing partisan alignment in national politics, it is not primarily a conflict between rural and urban interests.” And Stuart Rice concluded in 1928, after specialized studies of voting trends, that “antithetical” facts belie any interpretation of urban-rural election divisions which suggested a clearly defined cleavage.The literature on this subject which has appeared since 1932, however, has persistently suggested a new urban-rural modification of the pattern of presidential politics. In 1933, Professor Holcombe commented on the “radically different … urban politics of the future.”