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Divided by Place: the Enduring Geographical Fault Lines of American Politics

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Divided by Place: the Enduring Geographical Fault Lines of American Politics Divided by Place: The Enduring Geographical Fault Lines of American Politics Brian Kal Munis Philipsburg, MT M.A. Political Science, University of Montana, 2015 B.A. Political Science, University of Montana, 2013 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Politics University of Virginia August 2020 © 2020 Brian Kal Munis ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the role of place – symbolically charged spatial units that constitute psychologically meaningful categories – in the American politics. Overall, I argue that place, perhaps the most fundamental basis of group delineation – distinguishing “us over here” from “them over there” – continues to exert considerable sway over a non-trivial portion of the American electorate, campaign advertising, and representational style. In this dissertation, I develop a rich theoretical account of the political psychological structures of place, detailing the nature of concepts such as place identity and place resentment, as well as specifying the conditions under which these psychological structures matter for politics. Political media, such as campaign advertising, activate voters’ place identities, thereby increasing the likelihood that voters use place as a heuristic to evaluate candidates and other political objects. I document and explain variation in place-based appeals in political advertising and in Congress members’ social media feeds. Place appeals are common throughout the country and exert significant effects on how voters evaluate candidates. Moreover, politicians appear to use place appeals strategically, with more vulnerable members of Congress developing a more place centered, as opposed to nationalized, representation style. Regarding voting behavior, I account for how place-based resentments correspond with support for America’s parties, President Trump, and vote choice in the 2018 midterms. In addition, I demonstrate how candidates’ place-based characteristics activate voters’ place identities. Overall, despite the forces of nationalization and partisan polarization that some assume has already resulted in a transcendence of American politics beyond the local and particular, I find that place is a potent political psychological force in contemporary American politics. Overall, the findings in this dissertation contribute to debates surrounding several important topics in political science, including partisan polarization, nationalization, the urban-rural divide, and representation. To my parents Brian and Tammy, for your unending love and support. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 That All Politics Are No Longer Local Does Not Mean That No Politics Are Local: Considering Nationalization .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Place: What is it and Why Focus on its Role in Politics? ....................................................................... 12 Resentments based in Geography: The Power of Place Beyond Roots and Place Identity .................... 15 A Preview of the Remainder of the Dissertation ..................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2. A Theory of Place in American Political Behavior ................................................................... 20 Protecting Our Public Lands vs. Protecting Our Borders: A Father/Son Quarrel in the Montana Mountains .............................................................................................................................................. 21 Place: Its Construction and Importance in Heart and Mind ............................................................ 26 Sociological Tradition ........................................................................................................................ 29 Human Geography Tradition .............................................................................................................. 29 Place and Modernity ........................................................................................................................... 31 Place and Exclusion ............................................................................................................................ 32 The Social and Political Psychology of Place ...................................................................................... 33 Place Attachment ................................................................................................................................ 36 Place Identity ...................................................................................................................................... 37 Place Consciousness and Place-based Resentment ............................................................................ 40 Figure 2.1. Subnational Place-based Psychological Constellation (Hypothetical Individuals) .. 43 General Conditions Under Which Place Becomes Politically Salient .............................................. 45 Threat .................................................................................................................................................. 46 Communication of Elites ..................................................................................................................... 48 Social Sorting ...................................................................................................................................... 49 Place, Salience, and Political Campaigns ............................................................................................ 50 Place and Advertising ......................................................................................................................... 52 Place and the Digital Homestyle ........................................................................................................ 53 Place as a Basis for both Unifying and Divisive Superordinate Identities ....................................... 53 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 3. Measuring Place-based Resentment .......................................................................................... 57 What is Place Resentment .................................................................................................................... 59 Developing Survey Based Measures .................................................................................................... 66 Table 3.1 Place Resentment Scale Items ......................................................................................... 69 Validating Place Resentment ............................................................................................................... 71 Place resentment is unidimensional ..................................................................................................... 72 Place resentment is distinct .................................................................................................................. 73 Who is Resentful? ................................................................................................................................. 74 Figure 3.1 Means and Distributions of Place Resentment by Place Type .................................... 76 Table 3.2: Predictors of Place Resentment ..................................................................................... 79 Discussion and Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 82 Chapter 4: The Occurrence and Effects of Place-based Political Communications ................................... 85 Place-based Political Ads, or, Home, Home on the Range, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play on Constituent Priors ............................................................................................................................ 87 Documenting the Occurrence of Place-based Political Advertisements ............................................ 89 Table 4.1 Share of U.S. Senate Advertisements Featuring Place-based Appeals: 2010-2016 .... 92 Table 4.2 Types of Place-based Ads ................................................................................................ 93 Explaining the Occurrence of Place-based Ads.................................................................................. 95 Table 4.3 Predicting the Proportion of Place-based Ads ............................................................... 96 The Effects of Urban and Rural Place Appeals ................................................................................ 100 Figure 4.1 Example Stimuli for Each Experimental Condition .................................................. 102 Figure 4.2 Marginal Heterogenous Treatment Effects .............................................................. 103 Talk Local to Me: Place and the Digital Homestyle......................................................................... 104 Basic Patterns of Place-based Rhetoric on Congress Members’ Social Media Pages..................... 107 Figure 4.3 Place and the Digital Homestyle in the 114th and 115th Congresses ......................
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