Frank's Musings

What makes the rural and urban regions ideologically different? They get the same TV and radio broadcasts. They go to the same colleges and universities.  They live, after all, on the same planet.

Mainly because of the relatively sparse propinquity of non-family members rural residents are accustomed to or prefer relying on themselves for resolving most business and home-ownership problems.  One important consequence of this process of self-selection is that a larger proportion of society’s producers and doers has located in the least populated parts of the country.   Their isolation seems also to engender distrust of the judgment of the people who have selected to live and work with a wide range of collaborators in the urban regions of the country—whether that be in many professions, large businesses, academia, or the arts and general communications media

Demographic growth in the world’s leading democratic countries has been accompanied by increased urban concentration of those who are responsible for discovering and determining what needs to be produced and done.  Coupled with tax considerations and real estate values, it is not surprising that there should be a left-right split between the two types of regions.  By definition, the relative differences in population density between the two regions also contributes to more autonomous and conservative attitudes among rural residents in comparison to urban residents.  This is not an exclusive characterization of opposing segments of society; but rural districts of any democracy will usually display a less adventuresome, more traditional attitude towards public policy than the urban districts. 

Successful governance of any liberal democratic country depends on cooperation between these two components to achieve an economically and socially vital political entity.  The time-honored method of conducting that function, through elected representation, may no longer be adequate for performing that task.  In particular, modern communications technology and the high level of popular education have made a more direct method of self-government possible through universal use of the Internet.  New electoral methods and compensation models must be adopted in order to control the influence of special interests on the appointment of those who formulate the will of the people into effective policy and then carry it out.