The left’s underrepresentation in U.S. politics isn’t new, and ending gerrymandering won’t fix it. But the liberalization of suburbia might, writes EricLevitz
The House still needs knocking down. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images There is a majority coalition for progressive politics in the United States — but not necessarily a winning one.
But beneath all these impediments lies a less infamous, but arguably more fundamental, obstacle to progressive power — one that doesn’t just shortchange the left in the United States but also in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, and Japan. In Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide, Stanford political scientist Jonathan Rodden puts a spotlight on this transnational, counterrevolutionary menace: population density.
After all, in Pennsylvania, state legislative districts are drawn by a bipartisan commission — and the state constitution has long mandated that these districts “be composed of compact and contiguous territory as nearly equal in population as practicable,” a requirement that forbids extreme partisan gerrymandering.
Nevertheless, throughout much of Continental Europe, socialists amassed enough power to make liberal parties sweat. As liberals began losing seats to laborites in winner-take-all elections, many such parties opted to save themselves from oblivion by embracing the left’s call for proportional representation or . The precise details of PR systems vary across countries, but the basic idea is simple:
Manufacturing eventually left Western cities and industrial towns, but the left never did. There are several reasons for this persistence. When factories and mines closed down, the working-class housing that surrounded them usually remained, and such affordable residences attracted new communities of immigrants, minorities, and low-income workers — all left-leaning constituencies.
. Public opinion in the U.S. may be somewhat more conservative than it is in Continental Europe. But this alone cannot explain the gulf between our nation’s threadbare safety net and the Nordics’ comprehensive one. Surveys consistently find majoritarian support for progressive fiscal policies among the U.S. electorate.
More critically, since social identity tends to influence voter behavior more profoundly than policy details, the Democratic Party’s association with left-wing city dwellers can undermine its candidates in low-density areas, where many voters feel alienated from urban liberals .
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