Movers and Stayers : The Partisan Transformation of 21st Century Southern Politics

The South is on the cusp of a partisan transformation-one in which Democratic support is quickly accelerating--and Movers and Stayers explains why this change is occurring. It shows how young, educated movers are encouraging the increasing progressivism of the high growth communities that are their new homes, and it highlights the increasing conservatism of white stayers in the communities movers are leaving behind. Movers and Stayers highlights the contributions of blacks and Latinos to the growing progressivism in the South, and it explains the coming schism between high growth and stagnating communities (and states) in the South.

As migration alters the southern political landscape, partisan battle lines will be drawn between the Democrat-leaning areas of growth and the increasingly Republican areas of decline and stagnation.The Democratic Party is gaining support in the South, but the prevailing explanations of partisan shift fail to capture how and why this transformation has come about. In Movers and Stayers, Irwin Morris develops a new theory that explains the Democrats'' renewed influence in the region and empirically demonstrates the influence of population growth. As Morris shows, migratory patterns play a significant role in politics, and urbanization is driving polarization in the South. Those who move to cities--the "movers" of Morris''s framework--do so for jobs, and they tend to be progressive, young, well-educated Democrats. Their liberal views tend to be reinforced by the diversity of the communities in which they choose to live, and their progressivism fosters similar values among long-term residents. At the same time, "stayers" (long-term residents) absorb the consequences--or "community threat"--of this large-scale migration. While white stayers tend to become more conservative, the effects on voter behavior play out differently across racial lines. Both movers and stayers are altering the southern political landscape and polarization nationwide. Powerfully counterintuitive, Movers and Stayers provides a game-changing way of understanding one of the most confounding trends in American politics.