Some cutting edge political science research: Representation in Municipal Government

Since we've discussed - mostly in GOVT 2305 - democracy and wondered whether the national government is becoming more oligarchic, meaning it is increasingly responsive mostly to the needs of the wealthy, this recently published study about representation at the municipal level is worth looking at.

This also makes the subject relevant to 2306, where we are about to look at local governments more in-depth.

- Click here for the study.

The study was able to gather and process data that confirmed that liberal cities tend to get liberal policies, and conservative cities conservative policies - which suggests democracy is alive and well and the municipal level in the United States - if not, seemingly, the national level.

Both the Economist and Vox have reported on the study and focused on a graph it contains showing which cities are conservative and which are liberal. It's worth pointing out that the large cities in the nation tend to be liberal, very few are conservative, even in Texas.

Here's the proof. If you want to see how the numbers were generated, open up the study.