Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy

by Suzanne Mettler, Trevor E. Brown

How the urban-rural divide drives partisan polarization

Why have Americans living in different places come to experience politics as a battle between “us” and “them”? In Rural Versus Urban, Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown argue that political polarization is not just about red states and blue states, or coastal elites who alienate those in fly-over country. Instead, polarization permeates every region and every state—and has become organized through a pernicious rural-urban division. Mettler and Brown explain the evolution of this gulf across five decades, charting political trends in both places. Drawing on data on individuals, communities, and members of Congress, as well as interviews with local party leaders and former elected officials, they show how the divide emerged and why it poses a threat to democracy.

Until about thirty years ago, both political parties attracted support from rural and urban voters. But after place-based inequality grew due to deregulation and trade liberalization, white rural dwellers began to view urban people and Democrats as affluent elites out of touch with their needs. Politically active evangelical churches, antiabortion organizations, and gun groups helped deepen the divide, encouraging many of these rural residents to become staunch supporters of the GOP. Now, regional one-party rule in rural America gives Republicans a systematic edge for gaining control of crucial political institutions, including the Senate, House of Representatives, the Presidency, and even the Supreme Court. This is helping enable an extremist political party and pushing democracy to the brink. Mettler and Brown argue that the divide can be repaired—but only if the Democrats build their own robust local organizations and offer citizens a meaningful choice.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Sociology, American

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 23, 2025

About the author

Suzanne Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the Government Department at Cornell University. She is the author of several books, including The Government-Citizen Disconnect; Degrees of Inequality: How The Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream; and The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Programs Undermine American Democracy. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, and several book awards. In 2017, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Reviews

[John White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and timely book that should be read by anyone seeking to better understanding the hyperpolarization of politics and how it is tied to rural versus urban divide.

Admittedly, I am rooting for Democratic Party but more important democracy. Many lessons in this book will be bitter pill for fellow Democrats. Talking to our neighbors will not only help elections but help us all live in a more vibrant community.

[Janis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy, Suzanne Mettler and Trevor E. Brown provide a data-driven comparison of the political polarization between rural and urban residents. Although I have long lived in a liberal city, I frequently visit my mostly-rural hometown and can confirm the authors’ conclusions about the causes of this deep divide.

[Sylvia Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book goes a long way in explaining the political polarization found in the United States, its history and its dangers.

[Jaylani Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish there were books similar to this in Canadian politics, French politics, Italian politics, and other European nation politics.

[Lily Delianedis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queen, timely finishing for TX