1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910747000703321

Autore

Hogan Thor

Titolo

Closing the urban-rural power divide : envisioning a United city-States of America / / Thor Hogan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham, Switzerland : , : Palgrave Macmillan, , [2023]

©2023

ISBN

3-031-34063-9

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (257 pages)

Disciplina

307.760973

Soggetti

Rural-urban relations - United States

Urban policy - United States

United States Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Chapter 1: The Third Founding of American Democracy -- Chapter 2: A Corporatist-Ruralist Vetocracy -- Chapter 3: The Role of Cities in Global History -- Chapter 4: America’s Urban History -- Chapter 5: First-Wave Structural Reforms: The Adoption of City-States -- Chapter 6: Second-Wave Structural Reforms: The Constitution -- Chapter 7: City-State Policy Agenda -- Chapter 8: Urban Livability Agenda -- Chapter 9: A More Perfect Union.

Sommario/riassunto

This book proposes a radical reorganization of political and electoral power to address the current political imbalance between urban and rural populations in the United States. Hogan argues that, despite being smaller in population, a “financialist-ruralist coalition” has effectively used the Constitution—especially equal representation in the Senate—to create an anti-urban “vetocracy.” This political imbalance protects the interests of the financial elite and rural cultural conservatives, while effectively blocking urban interests, particularly regarding the adoption of a broad range of structural reforms and progressive policy preferences. By re-dividing many of the largest federated states into smaller city-states, the book posits, the United States would reduce the ability of non-urban interests to control the Senate. This would allow an empowered urbanite alliance to pass the forward-looking legislation



the nation needs to remain internationally competitive in the coming decades.