Urban-Rural Differences

This article asks whether local housing-market shifts help explain radical right support by linking geo-referenced panel survey data to postcode-level rent changes in Germany. It reports that rising local rents are associated with greater radical right voting, especially among lower-income, long-term residents and predominantly in urban areas. The piece highlights urban development and rent appreciation as a distinct correlate of anti‑establishment voting separate from labor-market threats.

This study introduces the first cross-national measure of urban–rural electoral divides that facilitates direct comparison beyond majoritarian democracies such as the UK and North America. The new measure is calculated for each election and political party, allowing comparisons over time and across countries with different electoral and party systems.

This article asks whether differences in local agricultural competitiveness help explain the growing political divide between rural and urban voters. The authors propose that where agriculture is uncompetitive, rural voters are more likely to support protectionist parties and policies because agriculture remains central to local economic and social life; where agriculture confers a comparative advantage, the rural–urban cleavage should be weaker. The paper reports cross-national and subnational analyses that test this comparative-advantage argument while qualifying its claims with multiple data sources and designs.