Company Towns: Industry Power and the Historical Foundations of Public Mistrust [Paperback]

Reveals the deep, historical roots of public distrust in former mining areas in the US, shedding new light on the corrosive feedback loops that persist today.

InCompany Towns, Elizabeth Mitchell Elder examines the long-lasting political legacies of mining-company dominance in the Midwest and Appalachia. While the economic consequences of deindustrialization are well-known, Elder shifts the focus to a more insidious problem: the political dysfunction that took root long before the mines shut down.

Drawing on historical and administrative data, Elder shows that the coal industry hindered the growth of local government capacity in the places where it was dominant. Mining companies also engaged in outright corruption to shape local governments, practices which local elites then carried forward. When mining companies withdrew, they left behind not just economic decline, but local governments ill-equipped to govern.

These patterns have had enduring consequences for public life. Elder shows how these historical experiences have fueled a broader cynicism toward government, in which citizens expect little from public institutions and doubt the usefulness of elections.Company Towns underscores the consequences of corporate dominance for state capacity, public opinion, and democratic accountability today.

Elizabeth Mitchell Elderis a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Her work has been published in theAmerican Political Science Review,theJournal of Politics,and theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among others.Chapter 1. Politics and Power in the Company Town

Part I. Governments Under Industry Dominance and Decline
Chapter 2. Land, Wealth, and Labor in Coal Country
Chapter 3. Coal and Capacity
Chapter 4. Corruption and Control

Part II. After the Company Town: Accountability and Trust
Chapter 5. Asking for Better? Atl3*