The Geographical Polarization of the American Electorate: a Country of Increasing Electoral Landslides

Ron Johnston*, David Manley, Kelvyn Jones, Ryne Rohla

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)
456 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

American politics have become increasingly polarized in recent decades, not only ideologically but also geographically. The extent of that geographical polarization is explored at the county and SMSA scales for the presidential elections held between 1992 and 2016 and also, at the much finer, precinct, scale for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 elections. The patterns that emerge show that much of non-metropolitan USA has becoming increasingly dominated by Republican party candidates, whereas the large metropolitan central cities remain dominated by the Democrats. Within those metropolitan areas, change, especially at the 2016 contest, was largely confined to their suburban districts.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)187-204
Number of pages18
JournalGeoJournal
Volume85
Issue number1
Early online date30 Nov 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2020

Keywords

  • Electoral geography
  • Landslides
  • Presidential elections
  • United States

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