Urbanization, Social Structure, and Mass Politics:A Comparison Within Five Nations
Abstract
URBANIZATION, SOCIAL STRUCTURE, AND MASS POLITICS A Comparison Within Five Nations DAVID R. CAMERON J. STEPHEN HENDRICKS RICHARD I. HOFFERBERT University of Michigan rbanization occupies a conspicuous place on the list of independent variables used by most students of politics. Voters in urban areas are expected to behave differently from those who live elsewhere. Nations in which large proportions of the population live in urban concentrations are expected to manifest different patterns of political performance from those in which most people are dispersed throughout rural areas. Furthermore. urbanization processes are often viewed as paralleling and “going along with" other aspects of social change such as industrialization and increasing socioeconomic interdependence within the nation-state. These expectations. while not always borne out by the evidence, are at least sufficiently attractive theoretically to ensure that urbanization continues to be of concern to most scholars. It may be useful, however, to isolate certain fundamental aspects of urbanization from other attributes of social structure which often occur AUTHORS' NOTE: h'e are grateful for support provided by the Corninittee on Go; ol*ernmentalarid Lefal Processes of the Social Science Research Council, the Cornell Center for International Studies and the Inter-University Consortium for Political Research. Earlier