Countries where cities lean right/rural areas lean left

[Peter the Lefty]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but does anyone know of specific examples of countries where rural areas on average are more left-leaning than the cities?  It only crossed my mind because I was looking at regional results of the 2013 Czech election, and Prague actually looked rather conservative compared to the country at large.  Top 09 came in first, ANO 2011 in second, and CSSD only got third with 14%.  Brno looks left-leaning though. 
So two questions:
1. Why does Prague seem to lean right?
2. Any other countries you know of with rural-left/urban-right voting patterns? 

[Smid]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but does anyone know of specific examples of countries where rural areas on average are more left-leaning than the cities?  It only crossed my mind because I was looking at regional results of the 2013 Czech election, and Prague actually looked rather conservative compared to the country at large.  Top 09 came in first, ANO 2011 in second, and CSSD only got third with 14%.  Brno looks left-leaning though. 
So two questions:
1. Why does Prague seem to lean right?
2. Any other countries you know of with rural-left/urban-right voting patterns? 

Not nationwide, but until recently Newfoundland and Labrador - Conservatives did best in St  Johns, while Liberals did better elsewhere. This is discussed further in Homely's Canadian maps thread on the International Elections board.

[Hifly]

Norway & Sweden

[Sol]

Bangkok voted for the right last election.

[RR1997]

I know you're talking about countries, but there are also three states that would fall into this category. Those three states are Alaska, to an extent Hawaii, and New Hampshire.

Also, this thread does not belong on the Forum Community board.

[Flake]

I know you're talking about countries, but there are also three states that would fall into this category. Those three states are Alaska, to an extent Hawaii, and New Hampshire.

Also, this thread does not belong on the Forum Community board.

If Hawaii had a uniform swing about 22.17% to Romney (Romney by 0.01) the map would look like this:



Hawaii County: 45.42% Romney
Honolulu County: 51.98% Romney
Kauai County: 46.30% Romney
Maui County: 46.02% Romney

I also agree with you on that, this needs to be moved to the International Elections board.

[Niemeyerite]

Andalucía in Spain.

[RR1997]

I know you're talking about countries, but there are also three states that would fall into this category. Those three states are Alaska, to an extent Hawaii, and New Hampshire.

Also, this thread does not belong on the Forum Community board.

If Hawaii had a uniform swing about 22.17% to Romney (Romney by 0.01) the map would look like this:



Hawaii County: 45.42% Romney
Honolulu County: 51.98% Romney
Kauai County: 46.30% Romney
Maui County: 46.02% Romney

I also agree with you on that, this needs to be moved to the International Elections board.

Note that I said to an EXTENT Hawaii, which means that the cities still lean torwards the Democrats, but are much more Republican than the rural areas.

[GaussLaw]

Also, don't forget the 2 states Obama carried in which he lost the state's biggest city:
Virginia (Virginia Beach)
Florida (Jacksonville)

Also, Oklahoma used to be like that, but now Oklahoma votes uniformly Republican.  Its biggest cities vote Republican along with the countryside. 

IMO this is kind of rare because unions and poverty both are (generally) more prevalent in the cities than in rural areas, both factors that are pretty universally associated with voting for the left (note:  many people in poverty vote for the right for other reasons, like in the Deep South with poor whites, but that's a different story).

[Donerail]

Also, don't forget the 2 states Obama carried in which he lost the state's biggest city:
Virginia (Virginia Beach)
Florida (Jacksonville)

Just on paper. Jacksonville isn't really a city. Obama carried, at a minimum, the three largest metros in the state - Miami/Lauderdale (Dade, Broward, Palm Beach), Orlando (Orange-Osceola), and Tampa (Hillsborough-Pinellas). Jacksonville is technically the largest city, but it's a consolidated city-county and ridiculously suburban. It's a lot smaller than the other three.

[MaxQue]

Northern Ontario and Quebec (business people, docters, lawyers and other white-collar workers are living in cities and they lean to the right). "Rural areas" (in fact small cities, since there is next to no farms, there are more workers and working-class people) are more left-wing.

[Meursault]

Was this not the case in most of the world into the 20th century?

[DC Al Fine]

Northern Ontario and Quebec (business people, docters, lawyers and other white-collar workers are living in cities and they lean to the right). "Rural areas" (in fact small cities, since there is next to no farms, there are more workers and working-class people) are more left-wing.

To add to what MaxQue said, there's also a racial element to voting in those areas. Whites live in the cities and vote Tory, natives live on reserve and vote NDP.

[Hatman 🍁]

Yup, Northern Ontario.

[Sol]

Also, don't forget the 2 states Obama carried in which he lost the state's biggest city:
Virginia (Virginia Beach)
Florida (Jacksonville)

Just on paper. Jacksonville isn't really a city. Obama carried, at a minimum, the three largest metros in the state - Miami/Lauderdale (Dade, Broward, Palm Beach), Orlando (Orange-Osceola), and Tampa (Hillsborough-Pinellas). Jacksonville is technically the largest city, but it's a consolidated city-county and ridiculously suburban. It's a lot smaller than the other three.

And Virginia Beach is Norfolk suburb which has larger boundaries and a large business base- which is why it is (stupidly) considered the center of the metro.

[H. Ross Peron]

Paris voted fairly right-wing until recently in France.

All the Scandinavian countries are to a certain extent an example of this.

[politicus]

Paris voted fairly right-wing until recently in France.

All the Scandinavian countries are to a certain extent an example of this.

Only Norway and Sweden, I think. Definetly not Denmark and Iceland, dunno about Finland.

[Platypus]

Not that they really vote, but China?

[angus]

Not that they really vote, but China?

Perhaps, the farmers are poor.  I've been to China several times, but only to the richest parts so I don't have an intimate knowledge of the impoverished parts.  It's tough to judge China, after many decades of state-controlled information flow and a thoroughly venal, capitalistic version of Communism.  

During the 20th century the campesinos in Latin America supported leftism while their wealthier urban compatriots lean right.  Was this still the case when you were there?  In my two visits to Peru I observed that anti-corporatism was still popular in the country, but urban dwellers I visited with were much more commercially oriented.  I have also visited Mexico probably 20 times over the past 30 years and I have found that urban-dwellers are the most PAN-friendly.  (You have to be careful when observing election returns from Mexico because there remains a north/south divide, with areas north of Mexico's central valley having closer economic ties to the US and therefore supporting the PAN in greater percentages than those to the south, but generally urban areas are wealthier and more likely to support PAN.)  

I observed this urban/rural divide to some extent in Guatemala and Bolivia as well but not as much, probably because those countries are very poor and therefore much more leftist in general, even in the cities.  In both of those countries, I have witnessed huelgas in the city and in the country.  The other small countries I've visited in Latin America have a history of this condition as well, but I haven't really stayed in any of them long enough to make a thorough study.  
 
In fact, I think that generally around the world it has been the case that urban dwellers are more commercial, more Americanized, and more business oriented, while country folk are more collectivist and more socialist.  The opposite situation exists only in a few countries (The United States being one of them.)  Obviously, any analysis is compounded by regional differences.  In Africa, tribal, ethnic, and religious differences probably trump economic ones when voting, so you have northern Nigeria and southern Nigeria at odds for example, but in general, you will find the greatest support for commercialism and capitalism in those areas where the greatest concentration of folks have become wealthy, and those areas are urban.  The countryside is filled with farmers who are likely to be much more collectivist.  They are also probably the least educated and the least likely to have access to information and conveniently-located polling places, so studying election returns might not be the best way to analyze this.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Not a country, by I think many parts of the Deep South apply.  The "Black Belt" in Alabama for instance, is fairly rural.  Birmingham and Montgomery vote Democratic, but a lot of the smaller cities are very conservative.

[H. Ross Peron]

Paris voted fairly right-wing until recently in France.

All the Scandinavian countries are to a certain extent an example of this.

Only Norway and Sweden, I think. Definetly not Denmark and Iceland, dunno about Finland.

Finland seems to be a similar case: http://welections.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/finland-2012/

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ah, but the country and the city are not necessarily opposites and the division between the two may not always be so clear.

[politicus]

Paris voted fairly right-wing until recently in France.

All the Scandinavian countries are to a certain extent an example of this.

Only Norway and Sweden, I think. Definetly not Denmark and Iceland, dunno about Finland.

Finland seems to be a similar case: http://welections.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/finland-2012/

Given its income distribution and demographics that makes perfect sense.

[Flake]

I know you're talking about countries, but there are also three states that would fall into this category. Those three states are Alaska, to an extent Hawaii, and New Hampshire.

Also, this thread does not belong on the Forum Community board.

If Hawaii had a uniform swing about 22.17% to Romney (Romney by 0.01) the map would look like this:



Hawaii County: 45.42% Romney
Honolulu County: 51.98% Romney
Kauai County: 46.30% Romney
Maui County: 46.02% Romney

I also agree with you on that, this needs to be moved to the International Elections board.

Note that I said to an EXTENT Hawaii, which means that the cities still lean torwards the Democrats, but are much more Republican than the rural areas.

And I agreed with that statement, because Honolulu County voted more Republican than the rest of the state, which is considerably more rural.

[GMantis]

Most of Eastern Europe. For a particularly striking example, see this map. The right-wing UDF lost by nearly 20%, but still won the three largest cities.