Delivering the Vote: The Political Effect of Free Mail Delivery in Early Twentieth Century America
Delivering the Vote: The Political Effect of Free Mail Delivery in Early Twentieth Century America
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DOI：
10.1017/s0022050716000784
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发表时间：
2016-09
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
E. Perlman;Steven Sprick Schuster
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
E. Perlman;Steven Sprick Schuster
20世纪初农村免费邮递（RFD）的推出大大增加了农村选民获得信息的频率。本文使用面板数据集和工具变量考察了RFD对选民和代表行为的影响。获得更多路线的社区将选票投给更多的政党；没有证据表明它改变了投票率。RFD改变了代表们与农村选民一致的立场，包括增加对支持禁酒和反移民政策的支持。这些结果只出现在有报纸的国家，支持了信息流在政治过程中发挥关键作用的假设。<s:2>€œAs由于蒸汽和电的发明和使用，整个世界走得更近了，因此，普遍实行的免费送货也可以把农民们走得更近。明尼苏达州文代尔的马修·威廉姆斯（Matthew Williams）如是说，引用自1900年美国农业部年鉴
The rollout of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the early twentieth century dramatically increased the frequency with which rural voters received information. This article examines the effect of RFD on voters' and Representatives' behavior using a panel dataset and instrumental variables. Communities receiving more routes spread their votes to more parties; there is no evidence it changed turnout. RFD shifted positions taken by Representatives in line with rural constituents, including increased support for pro-temperance and anti-immigration policies. These results appear only in counties with newspapers, supporting the hypothesis that information flows play a crucial role in the political process. “As the whole world has been drawn closer together by the inventions and uses of steam and electricity, so farmers may be drawn closer together by the universal practice of free delivery.†—Matthew Williams of Verndale, Minnesota as quoted in the 1900 Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture