Jonathan Rodden on the Geography of Voting

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2012

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

Jonathan Rodden, political science professor at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the geography of voting. The main focus is on the tendency of urban voters around the world to vote for candidates on the left relative to suburban and rural voters. Rodden argues that this pattern is related to the geography of work and housing going back to the industrial revolution. He also discusses the implications of various voting systems such as winner-take-all vs. proportional representation, the electoral college and how political systems and voter preferences can produce unexpected outcomes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:16.0	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:23.1	going back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:27.9	We'd love to hear from you.
0:29.8	Today is October 4, 2012, and my guest is Jonathan Rodden, a professor of political science
0:38.7	at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
0:43.0	Jonathan, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:45.0	Thank you very much for having me.
0:46.9	I'm happy to be here.
0:48.2	We're going to talk about your research on voting and geography, and if we have time,
0:52.0	we'll explore some other issues that you've been working on as well.
0:55.2	But I want to start by talking about the book you're working on, which has at least the
0:59.2	tentative title, The Long Shadow of the Industrial Revolution Geography and the Representation
1:04.5	of the Left.
1:06.2	Let's start with what seems to be true in the United States geographically.
1:09.9	People in cities seem to vote differently from people in the suburbs and rural areas with
1:14.0	a lot of consistency.
1:15.8	What do we know about this pattern in the United States and outside the United States?
	...

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