The Rural-Urban Divide in Public Goods Satisfaction

Abstract

Public goods like schools and recreational facilities can foster a sense of community, but their benefits are not equally shared. This paper uses survey data from the 2020 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) to understand urban and rural Americans’ satisfaction with the public goods in their communities. I theorize that people compare current public goods with their prior experiences — this retrospective analysis drives public goods satisfaction. I create an original measure of community public goods satisfaction based on the provision of five public goods: parks, schools, police, health care, and transit. I find that rural residents are less satisfied with public goods than urban residents. Additionally, this rural-urban gap varies by length of time a person has lived in the community. Those who have lived in a rural community for many years exhibit lower satisfaction, particularly in terms of health care and transit, which is consistent with characterizations of the hollowing out of rural America.

Keywords

rural-urban divide rural resentment public goods public opinion

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Achen

C. H.

Bartels

L. M.

(2016). Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government (Revised edition). Princeton University Press.

Brown

T. E.

Jauregui

G. P.

Mettler

Rivera

(2025). A rural-urban political divide among whom? Race, ethnicity, and political behavior across place. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 13(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2024.2328551

Brown

T. E.

Mettler

(2023). Sequential polarization: The development of the rural-urban political divide, 1976–2020. Perspectives on Politics, 22(3), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592723002918

Callaghan

Lueck

J. A.

Trujillo

K. L.

Ferdinand

A. O.

(2021). Rural and urban differences in COVID-19 prevention behaviors. The Journal of Rural Health, 37(2), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12556

Cheng

Peterson

P. E.

(2017). How satisfied are parents with their children’s schools? Education Next, 17(2). https://www.educationnext.org/how-satisfied-are-parents-with-childrens-schools-us-dept-ed-survey/

Cox

Epp

D. A.

Shepherd

M. E.

(2024). Access to healthcare and voting: The case of hospital closures in rural America. American Political Science Review, 119(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424001035

Cramer

K. J.

(2016). The politics of resentment: Rural consciousness in Wisconsin and the rise of Scott Walker. University of Chicago Press.

Cummings

Harris

Mahoney

(2024). The paradox between the macroeconomy and household sentiment. The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-paradox-between-the-macroeconomy-and-household-sentiment/

Dawkins

Nemerever

Munis

B. K.

Verville

(2023). Place, race, and the geographic politics of white grievance. Political Behavior, 46(3), 1813–1835. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09897-4

10.

Fiorina

M. P.

(1981). Retrospective voting in American national elections. Yale University Press.

11.

Foster

N. S. J.

Damiano

P. C.

Momany

E. T.

McLeran

H. T.

(1996). Rural public transportation: Perceptions of transit managers, directors of area agencies on aging, and elders. Transportation Research Record, 1557(1), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198196155700109

12.

Frey

W. H.

(2018). Diversity explosion: How new racial demographics are remaking America. Brookings Institution Press. https://doi.org/10.7864/j.ctt1vjqnns

13.

Garcia

Davidson

(2013). Are rural people more anti-immigrant than urban people? A comparison of attitudes toward immigration in the United States. Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 28(1), 80–105. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1429152039/abstract/AC9CD8CD39904DF0PQ/1

14.

Gimpel

J. G.

Reeves

(2024). The urban-rural divide and residential contentment as antecedents of political ideology. Cities, 146.

15.

Hopkins

D. A.

(2017). Red fighting blue: How geography and electoral rules polarize American politics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108123594

16.

Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) (2024). COVID-19 and Unique Challenges in Rural Communities. Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). https://www.idsociety.org/covid-19-real-time-learning-network/COVID-Health-Equity-Resources/covid-19-and-the-unique-challenges-faced-by-rural-communities/#/+/0/publishedDate_na_dt/desc/

17.

Jacobs

N. F.

Shea

(2024). The rural voter: The politics of place and the disuniting of America. Columbia University Press.

18.

Jefferson

(2020). The curious case of Black conservatives: Construct validity and the 7-point liberal-conservative scale. (SSRN Scholarly Paper 3602209). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3602209

19.

Johnson

K. M.

(2023). Population Redistribution Trends in Nonmetropolitan America, 2010 to 2021. Rural Sociology, 88(1), 193–219. https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12473

20.

Kim

Rho

(2024). Citizen satisfaction research in public administration: A systematic literature review and future research agenda. The American Review of Public Administration. https://doi.org/10.1177/02750740241237477

21.

Kirk

J. R. G.

(2025). Landscape of distrust: Political trust across America’s urban-rural divide. American Politics Research, 53(1), 28–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X241273220

22.

Laird

C. N.

White

I. K.

(2020). Steadfast Democrats. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691199511/steadfast-democrats

23.

Lerman

A. E.

(2019). Good Enough for Government Work: The Public Reputation Crisis in America. University of Chicago Press.

24.

Lin

Lunz Trujillo

(2023). Are rural attitudes just Republican? Political Science Research and Methods, 12(3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2023.48

25.

Lunz Trujillo

(2022). Rural identity as a contributing factor to anti-intellectualism in the U.S. Political Behavior, 44(3), 1509–1532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09770-w

26.

Lunz Trujillo

(2024). Feeling out of place: Who are the non-rural rural identifiers, and are they unique politically? Political Behavior, 46(4), 2215–2239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-024-09915-z

27.

McGregor

(2024, June 25). St. Johnsbury academy sinks hope for pool reopening. Caledonian Record. https://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/st-johnsbury-academy-sinks-hope-for-pool-reopening/article_c54ef5e9-090f-5986-80c9-8d44e77e9d36.html

28.

Mettler

(2011). The submerged state: How invisible government policies undermine American democracy. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo12244559.html

29.

Mettler

(2018). The Government-Citizen Disconnect. Russell Sage Foundation.

30.

Mettler

Brown

(2022). The growing rural-urban political divide and democratic vulnerability. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 699(1), 130–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211070061

31.

Mettler

Brown

T. E.

(2025). Rural versus urban: The growing divide that threatens democracy. Princeton University Press.

32.

Mueller

J. T.

McConnell

Burow

P. B.

Pofahl

Merdjanoff

A. A.

Farrell

(2021). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(1), Article 2019378118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2019378118

33.

Munis

B. K.

Memovic

Christley

O. R.

(2024). Of rural resentment and storming capitols: An investigation of the geographic contours of support for political violence in the United States. Political Behavior, 46(3), 1791–1812. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09895-6

34.

Munis

B. K.

(2022). Us over here versus them over there…Literally: Measuring place resentment in American politics. Political Behavior, 44(3), 1057–1078. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09641-2

35.

Munis

B. K.

Nemerever

(2024). Rural residency, rural resentment, and attitudes toward public land management in the United States. Environmental Politics, 34(5), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2024.2413839

36.

Nemerever

Rogers

(2021). Measuring the rural continuum in political science. Political Analysis, 29(3), 267–286. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2020.47

37.

Philpot

T. S.

(2017). Conservative but not Republican: The paradox of party identification and ideology among African Americans (Reprint edition). Cambridge University Press.

38.

Ramakrishnan

Suandi

(2024). Who lives in rural America? U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency. https://www.fhfa.gov/blog/insights/who-lives-in-rural-america

39.

Rodden

(2024). The great recession and the public sector in rural America. Journal of Economic Geography, 24(3), 441–458. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad015

40.

Sageman

(2022). School closures and rural population decline. Rural Sociology, 87(3), 960–992. https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12437

41.

Serlin

(2025). The public agglomeration effect: Urban–rural divisions in government efficiency and political preferences. American Journal of Political Science, Forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.70023

42.

Shepherd

M. E.

(2025). The politics of rural hospital closures. Political Behavior, 47(3), 915–961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-024-10000-8

43.

Soss

(1999). Lessons of welfare: Policy design, political learning, and political action. American Political Science Review, 93(2), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.2307/2585401

44.

State and Local Expenditures (State and Local Backgrounders) . (2024). Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/state-and-local-expenditures

45.

Thomas

K. L.

Dobis

E. A.

McGranahan

D. D.

(2024). The nature of the rural-urban mortality gap (economic information bulletin) (265, pp. 1–37). USDA Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/publications/108702/EIB-265.pdf?v=56825

46.

Thompson

(2023). Don’t fence me in! rural resentment and political trust in the United States. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/kbny8

47.

Tieken

M. C.

Montgomery

M. K.

(2021). Challenges facing schools in rural America. State Education Standard, 21(1), 6–11. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1286832

48.

Trounstine

(2018). Segregation by design: Local politics and inequality in American cities. Cambridge University Press.

49.

Uhl

J. H.

Hunter

L. M.

Leyk

Connor

D. S.

Nieves

J. J.

Hester

Talbot

Gutmann

(2023). Place-level urban–rural indices for the United States from 1930 to 2018. Landscape and Urban Planning, 236, Article 104762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104762

50.

Van de Walle

(2018). Explaining citizen satisfaction and dissatisfaction with public services. In Ongaro

Van Thiel

(Eds.), The palgrave handbook of public administration and management in Europe (pp. 227–241). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55269-3_11

51.

Weaver

V. M.

Lerman

A. E.

(2010). Political consequences of the Carceral state. American Political Science Review, 104(4), 817–833. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055410000456

52.

Wuthnow

(2018). The left behind: Decline and rage in small-town America. Princeton University Press.

53.

Zhang

(2022). The bus is arriving: Population growth and public transportation ridership in rural America. Journal of Rural Studies, 95, 467–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.09.018

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.20 MB