Politics and Policy in Mono-Industrial Communities

• In Event: Political Economy and Local Democracy

Abstract

The industrial landscape of the United States features many cities and towns that revolve around a single dominant industry. The most prominent examples come from manufacturing and extractive industries, but we also find them in other sectors such as education, technology, and entertainment. Despite their differences, places with mono-industrial economies share at least one thing in common: they are especially vulnerable to negative economic shocks. Using quantitative methods, I illustrate how negative shocks to the coal industry generate material and civic-organizational declines. I suggest that the social programs people turn to when faced with these circumstances have downstream consequences for politics in affected communities. I closely examine one social program that appears especially responsive to these dynamics: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Using qualitative methods, I explore how SSDI has become so highly concentrated in areas with mono-industrial economies. And I investigate why, despite receiving direct support from the government, many residents still feel left behind. I conduct an in-depth case study of one such community, using interviews and archival records to trace the connections between individual and community-level experiences with political attitudes and participation. I argue the political outcomes we observe in mono-industrial places are mediated by the federal government’s response to these crises. While federal programs provide some support for those facing material losses, they do little to tackle the declines in civic-organizational life. In turn, these local conditions, when left unaddressed, exacerbate feelings of threat and abandonment, leading to weak partisan attachments locally, support for the populist right nationally, or total disengagement from politics.

Author

• Elizabeth Thom, Harvard University