Would the bicoastal United States by itself be considered as socially liberal as Canada, Australia or New Zealand? (2013, house)
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Until recently, the USA was small towns. many things considered "real America" by those who use that phrase are referring to small towns. Some states don't really have huge major cities. they're just major cities relative to the rest of the state. For example, Fargo North Dakota is the states largest city at 107,530. the majority of the rest of ND's cities are well under 100k and there are huge areas like this in the US. Only recently have the true major cities (those 500,000 and up) have started to dominate beyond their respective regions.
But the US seems to have large cities by worldwide standards early on in its history. New York, Chicago and Philadelphia broke the top ten list of biggest cities on earth a century ago. No country could touch New York and Chicago's skyscrapers for quite some time.
Many countries in the world didn't have as many big cities or had mainly one big one (like the UK's London or Japan's Tokyo).
Also, since the topic is cities, especially big dense cities, making countries liberal, Canada is so liberal despite it having really tiny cities a few generations back but only a handful of large cities in modern times (Buffalo, NY was actually larger than Canada's largest city, Toronto, not too long ago, maybe a century or more).
Or again, it could just be that the US is much more extreme in distribution of cities and towns. It has a few huge ones like NYC and lots and lots of small ones.
Maybe also differences in political systems make a difference in how liberal a country can be. The Electoral College gives smaller and less populated states a stronger say, in the United States, compared to the states with the bigger cities.
Or again, it could just be that the US is much more extreme in distribution of cities and towns. It has a few huge ones like NYC and lots and lots of small ones.
One big difference that is true is since the country is so vast, it's easy for those in the interior to feel like the major cities of the country are disconnected and nearly foreign in a way that couldn't be possible in a European country. But it could be true in Australia and Canada. But you're assuming more rural = more conservative. Australian and Canadian rural areas might not be as conservative as most American rural areas. The rural-urban political divide wasn't so stark in the US decades ago, though culturally there was always some divide.
Are most developed countries less rural than the US? I'm guessing there is more a distribution of smaller towns in the US spread out away from big cities than in many other countries and the US also has more diversity of lands and climates for farming than many other nations.
It seems that in Canada or Australia, despite their overall country's low densities, a few big cities can have the concentration of much of the population, leaving few people to live in large swathes of unpopulated land. European and British countrysides are more dense too.
But most parts of Canada or Australia are uninhabitable. If you take inhabitable lands only, Canada and especially Australia densities are quite high in comparison to the US.
%of rural population
China : 53%
World : 40%
Poland : 39%
Japan : 33.2%
Germany : 27.2%
Europe : ~25%
Norway : 20.6%
UK : 20.4%
Canada : 19.4%
US : 17.7%
France : 14.7%
NZ : 13.9%
Australia : 10.9% source
So even for developed standards US is quite urban.
And funny fact : there is around 25.000 towns in the US.. but around 35.000 in France.
One big difference that is true is since the country is so vast, it's easy for those in the interior to feel like the major cities of the country are disconnected and nearly foreign in a way that couldn't be possible in a European country. But it could be true in Australia and Canada. But you're assuming more rural = more conservative. Australian and Canadian rural areas might not be as conservative as most American rural areas. The rural-urban political divide wasn't so stark in the US decades ago, though culturally there was always some divide.
Hmm... that's interesting. Vermont is quite liberal despite being rural, so it's true that the rural-urban divide isn't always so strong.
I wonder which factors increase or decrease the rural-urban divide and if it usually happens by cities becoming more liberal rather than rural areas becoming more conservative. Or perhaps cities become really liberal and rural areas react to that with a dislike and become more determined to resist (hence, the "we're the real America" thing).
Hmm... that's interesting. Vermont is quite liberal despite being rural, so it's true that the rural-urban divide isn't always so strong.
I wonder which factors increase or decrease the rural-urban divide and if it usually happens by cities becoming more liberal rather than rural areas becoming more conservative. Or perhaps cities become really liberal and rural areas react to that with a dislike and become more determined to resist (hence, the "we're the real America" thing).
Voter Turnout rate, can't forget to mention the segment of the population that just doesn't care about politics.
I know most Americans don't care that much about politics and the voter turnout is very low compared to other developed nations, but it seems those who are into politics are VERY INTO politics lol.
Except those huge areas are a relatively small part of the country population-wise. Small-town America was always a bit of a myth. Different parts of the country urbanized at completely different times, so it's hard to generalize; the south was still mostly rural around 1950s, the Northeast had mostly urban for decades. Interestingly, the more recently settled west, particularly the west coast urbanized earlier than the south.
The west coast urbanized faster for two reasons; the first is, people had specific reasons for moving to the cities, especially Los Angeles and San Francisco. The second reason is the geography of the land tended to create large areas that were not suitable for development which is in large part why western metros tend to be isolated so most people live in the metros. The only place on the west coast that's a continuous city so to speak is coastal southern CA and that is only broken due to Camp Pendleton. I disagree with you saying small town America was a myth. the US government encouraged settlement in the interior so people spread out and built small settlements which turned into small towns. besides these small town, Americans lived mostly in suburbs. Like I said, the majority of Americans in major cities is a recent trend.
But the US seems to have large cities by worldwide standards early on in its history. New York, Chicago and Philadelphia broke the top ten list of biggest cities on earth a century ago. No country could touch New York and Chicago's skyscrapers for quite some time.
Many countries in the world didn't have as many big cities or had mainly one big one (like the UK's London or Japan's Tokyo).
Also, since the topic is cities, especially big dense cities, making countries liberal, Canada is so liberal despite it having really tiny cities a few generations back but only a handful of large cities in modern times (Buffalo, NY was actually larger than Canada's largest city, Toronto, not too long ago, maybe a century or more).
Or again, it could just be that the US is much more extreme in distribution of cities and towns. It has a few huge ones like NYC and lots and lots of small ones.
That's the key. Also remember, the USA spans the width of a continent larger in area than Australia so there are going to be more big cities on a national level.
Hmm... that's interesting. Vermont is quite liberal despite being rural, so it's true that the rural-urban divide isn't always so strong.
I wonder which factors increase or decrease the rural-urban divide and if it usually happens by cities becoming more liberal rather than rural areas becoming more conservative. Or perhaps cities become really liberal and rural areas react to that with a dislike and become more determined to resist (hence, the "we're the real America" thing).
Interesting post and facts. I forgot about Vermont. in fact it's probably the most liberal state in the country. It's certainly the only one with an active socialist party in state government.
The west coast urbanized faster for two reasons; the first is, people had specific reasons for moving to the cities, especially Los Angeles and San Francisco. The second reason is the geography of the land tended to create large areas that were not suitable for development which is in large part why western metros tend to be isolated so most people live in the metros. The only place on the west coast that's a continuous city so to speak is coastal southern CA and that is only broken due to Camp Pendleton. I disagree with you saying small town America was a myth. the US government encouraged settlement in the interior so people spread out and built small settlements which turned into small towns. besides these small town, Americans lived mostly in suburbs. Like I said, the majority of Americans in major cities is a recent trend.
Suburbs aren't really small towns, they're parts of metropolitan areas outside the city limits. As to the last sentence, I'd like to see some numbers. My perspective might be biased, as I'm from a part of the country where most people have lived in at least small cities for a long time.
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