ABSTRACT
Mississippi, the most rural state in the South, has long shunned the election for president. Urban populations or are clearly within the influence of a major socioeconomic magnetic force across the state line. The capital of Vermont, Montpelier, lies in the center of the state on the Winooski River. Vermont, like Montana, has a mountain range that cuts the state in two, and east-west travel over the Green Mountains is limited in rural locations. Rural states are a promising hunting ground for the connection between region and political culture. The life-styles, economic status, and social behavior of rural people are apt to reflect the land around them. It was the environment that drew them to the land in the first place-the miners to the mountains and now to the plains, the farmers to the river bottoms, and the loggers to the forests. The participatory pattern in the rural states completely rejects the urbanization hypothesis.
