Closing the Urban-Rural Power Divide

Closing the Urban-Rural Power Divide PDF Author: Thor Hogan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031340639
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This book proposes a radical reorganization of political and electoral power to address the current political imbalance between urban and rural populations in the United States. Hogan argues that, despite being smaller in population, a “financialist-ruralist coalition” has effectively used the Constitution—especially equal representation in the Senate—to create an anti-urban “vetocracy.” This political imbalance protects the interests of the financial elite and rural cultural conservatives, while effectively blocking urban interests, particularly regarding the adoption of a broad range of structural reforms and progressive policy preferences. By re-dividing many of the largest federated states into smaller city-states, the book posits, the United States would reduce the ability of non-urban interests to control the Senate. This would allow an empowered urbanite alliance to pass the forward-looking legislation the nation needs to remain internationally competitive in the coming decades.

Closing the Urban-Rural Power Divide

Closing the Urban-Rural Power Divide PDF Author: Thor Hogan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031340639
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
This book proposes a radical reorganization of political and electoral power to address the current political imbalance between urban and rural populations in the United States. Hogan argues that, despite being smaller in population, a “financialist-ruralist coalition” has effectively used the Constitution—especially equal representation in the Senate—to create an anti-urban “vetocracy.” This political imbalance protects the interests of the financial elite and rural cultural conservatives, while effectively blocking urban interests, particularly regarding the adoption of a broad range of structural reforms and progressive policy preferences. By re-dividing many of the largest federated states into smaller city-states, the book posits, the United States would reduce the ability of non-urban interests to control the Senate. This would allow an empowered urbanite alliance to pass the forward-looking legislation the nation needs to remain internationally competitive in the coming decades.

Why Cities Lose

Why Cities Lose PDF Author: Jonathan A. Rodden
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541644255
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A prizewinning political scientist traces the origins of urban-rural political conflict and shows how geography shapes elections in America and beyond Why is it so much easier for the Democratic Party to win the national popular vote than to build and maintain a majority in Congress? Why can Democrats sweep statewide offices in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan yet fail to take control of the same states' legislatures? Many place exclusive blame on partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression. But as political scientist Jonathan A. Rodden demonstrates in Why Cities Lose, the left's electoral challenges have deeper roots in economic and political geography. In the late nineteenth century, support for the left began to cluster in cities among the industrial working class. Today, left-wing parties have become coalitions of diverse urban interest groups, from racial minorities to the creative class. These parties win big in urban districts but struggle to capture the suburban and rural seats necessary for legislative majorities. A bold new interpretation of today's urban-rural political conflict, Why Cities Lose also points to electoral reforms that could address the left's under-representation while reducing urban-rural polarization.

The Politics of Resentment

The Politics of Resentment PDF Author: Katherine J. Cramer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022634925X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
“An important contribution to the literature on contemporary American politics. Both methodologically and substantively, it breaks new ground.” —Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare When Scott Walker was elected Governor of Wisconsin, the state became the focus of debate about the appropriate role of government. In a time of rising inequality, Walker not only survived a bitterly contested recall, he was subsequently reelected. But why were the very people who would benefit from strong government services so vehemently against the idea of big government? With The Politics of Resentment, Katherine J. Cramer uncovers an oft-overlooked piece of the puzzle: rural political consciousness and the resentment of the “liberal elite.” Rural voters are distrustful that politicians will respect the distinct values of their communities and allocate a fair share of resources. What can look like disagreements about basic political principles are therefore actually rooted in something even more fundamental: who we are as people and how closely a candidate’s social identity matches our own. Taking a deep dive into Wisconsin’s political climate, Cramer illuminates the contours of rural consciousness, showing how place-based identities profoundly influence how people understand politics. The Politics of Resentment shows that rural resentment—no less than partisanship, race, or class—plays a major role in dividing America against itself.

Farm Fresh Broadband

Farm Fresh Broadband PDF Author: Christopher Ali
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262367084
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
An analysis of the failure of U.S. broadband policy to solve the rural–urban digital divide, with a proposal for a new national rural broadband plan. As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has created a stark urban–rural digital divide. In Farm Fresh Broadband, Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of broadband use in the rural Midwest. Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up—rural broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where does the money go? Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going to big companies. The result would be a multistakeholder system, guided by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support.

Invisible China

Invisible China PDF Author: Scott Rozelle
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022674051X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
A study of how China’s changing economy may leave its rural communities in the dust and launch a political and economic disaster. As the glittering skyline in Shanghai seemingly attests, China has quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. But as Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell show in Invisible China, the truth is much more complicated and might be a serious cause for concern. China’s growth has relied heavily on unskilled labor. Most of the workers who have fueled the country’s rise come from rural villages and have never been to high school. While this national growth strategy has been effective for three decades, the unskilled wage rate is finally rising, inducing companies inside China to automate at an unprecedented rate and triggering an exodus of companies seeking cheaper labor in other countries. Ten years ago, almost every product for sale in an American Walmart was made in China. Today, that is no longer the case. With the changing demand for labor, China seems to have no good back-up plan. For all of its investment in physical infrastructure, for decades China failed to invest enough in its people. Recent progress may come too late. Drawing on extensive surveys on the ground in China, Rozelle and Hell reveal that while China may be the second-largest economy in the world, its labor force has one of the lowest levels of education of any comparable country. Over half of China’s population—as well as a vast majority of its children—are from rural areas. Their low levels of basic education may leave many unable to find work in the formal workplace as China’s economy changes and manufacturing jobs move elsewhere. In Invisible China, Rozelle and Hell speak not only to an urgent humanitarian concern but also a potential economic crisis that could upend economies and foreign relations around the globe. If too many are left structurally unemployable, the implications both inside and outside of China could be serious. Understanding the situation in China today is essential if we are to avoid a potential crisis of international proportions. This book is an urgent and timely call to action that should be read by economists, policymakers, the business community, and general readers alike. Praise for Invisible China “Stunningly researched.” —TheEconomist, Best Books of the Year (UK) “Invisible China sounds a wake-up call.” —The Strategist “Not to be missed.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK) “[Invisible China] provides an extensive coverage of problems for China in the sphere of human capital development . . . the book is rich in content and is not constrained only to China, but provides important parallels with past and present developments in other countries.” —Journal of Chinese Political Science

Development and the Rural-Urban Divide

Development and the Rural-Urban Divide PDF Author: John Harriss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351714899
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
First published in 1984. It is widely acknowledged that rural-urban differences and interrelationships play an important role in the development process. Some theorists believe they are a primary cause of continuing poverty in poor nations. This volume of essays summarises and appraises theories of rural-urban relations and economic development and explores, mainly on the basis of country case studies, the conceptual and theoretical problems to which they give rise, and the extent to which they correspond to recent experiences in the Third World.

Innovative China

Innovative China PDF Author: Taco C.R. van Someren
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642362370
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
China is trying to turn its labor, capital and resources intensive, lower added-value and export dependent growth into a sustainable innovative economy. This is changing the world’s power balance and has sparked a race between East and West in knowledge-based, high added-value economic innovation. Inspired by their extensive experience in doing business with China, the authors show how the US, the EU and China have reached a crossroad where ten battle fields decide about their future earning capacity and prosperity. Whether China will be a threat or an opportunity depends on the main players in government, public and private organizations rethinking their innovation policies and paths of business development. This books offers a new view on innovation which can be applied by corporate leaders and policy makers to get ready for the future. ​

Geographies of Migration

Geographies of Migration PDF Author: Richard Wright
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317212819
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Migration is an enormously broad topic of academic enquiry engaging researchers from many different social science disciplines. A wide variety of contributors from across the globe capture some of the methodological and conceptual range of migration research in the discipline of Geography today. This volume covers a large area geographically and in the expanse of subject areas involved: eighteen chapters investigate migration from, to, or within at least fifteen countries, with several sections spanning multiple places and scales. Many chapters are deeply concerned with vulnerable populations, which is not only a characteristic of much immigration scholarship but also one that connects with other areas of geography. The study of geographical assertions of sovereign power via the discourses of disorder, chaos, and crisis, shows that in these transnational times, national power is being violently reasserted, on, within, and beyond international borders. Other important topics covered include migration and climate change, "illegality", security, government policy, labor, family, and sexual orientation. This book was previously published as a special issue of Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

Handbook of Research on Managing the Urban-Rural Divide Through an Inclusive Framework

Handbook of Research on Managing the Urban-Rural Divide Through an Inclusive Framework PDF Author: Popoola, Ayobami Abayomi
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1668462605
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
In recent years, the growing disparities between rural and urban areas in developing countries have been a cause of major concern. The rural-urban gap remains the single most well-documented development and welfare disparity in the developing world. This gap can be seen in the low economic activities, higher poverty levels, and lower quality infrastructure and services in rural areas as opposed to urban areas. While the magnitude of this rural-urban divide is well-documented, very little has been documented about its impact on inclusive and sustainable urban development. The Handbook of Research on Managing the Urban-Rural Divide Through an Inclusive Framework aims to capture the spatial and socio-economic divide between rural and urban areas and provides a road map to revamping the discussion that surrounds the urban-rural sphere. Covering key topics such as development, food security, and rural regions, this premier reference source is ideal for policymakers, government officials, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Citizen and Subject

Citizen and Subject PDF Author: Mahmood Mamdani
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400889715
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
In analyzing the obstacles to democratization in post- independence Africa, Mahmood Mamdani offers a bold, insightful account of colonialism's legacy--a bifurcated power that mediated racial domination through tribally organized local authorities, reproducing racial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in subjects. Many writers have understood colonial rule as either "direct" (French) or "indirect" (British), with a third variant--apartheid--as exceptional. This benign terminology, Mamdani shows, masks the fact that these were actually variants of a despotism. While direct rule denied rights to subjects on racial grounds, indirect rule incorporated them into a "customary" mode of rule, with state-appointed Native Authorities defining custom. By tapping authoritarian possibilities in culture, and by giving culture an authoritarian bent, indirect rule (decentralized despotism) set the pace for Africa; the French followed suit by changing from direct to indirect administration, while apartheid emerged relatively later. Apartheid, Mamdani shows, was actually the generic form of the colonial state in Africa. Through case studies of rural (Uganda) and urban (South Africa) resistance movements, we learn how these institutional features fragment resistance and how states tend to play off reform in one sector against repression in the other. The result is a groundbreaking reassessment of colonial rule in Africa and its enduring aftereffects. Reforming a power that institutionally enforces tension between town and country, and between ethnicities, is the key challenge for anyone interested in democratic reform in Africa.