Professor Irwin Morris Honored with V.O. Key Award
Dr. Irwin Morris, professor of political science, has won the V.O. Key Award for the best book on Southern politics. The Southern Political Science Association presented the award during their annual meeting in January in San Antonio, Texas. Morris was honored for his book, Movers & Stayers: The Partisan Transformation of 21st Century Southern Politics, published in January 2021.
In Movers & Stayers, Morris examines how population growth—specifically, the in-migration of non-southerners (the movers), has influenced the politics of where these populations settle. Morris finds that the influx of young, better educated residents to Southern urban centers for career purposes is the primary driver of recent increases in Democratic Party support in Dixie, contrary to explanations based on the rural/urban divide, on the increasing urbanization of the South, or on political sorting. Their preferences for more progressive policies conflicts sharply with those of long-term southerners (the stayers) who desire the region to maintain its traditional conservative policies and governance. This tension between movers and stayers fuels polarization both regionally and nationally. Morris’ identification of migration as central to the transformation of the South is novel, and it provides inspiration for future research.
The book challenges scholars to reconceptualize “The South.” Movers & Stayers draws attention to the fact that in the 21st century, the region is more than simply a collection of the states that comprised the Confederacy. In doing so, the book begins to shift our focus from analyzing the region in terms of a deep vs. rim state perspective to one distinguishing growing (e.g., Georgia, Florida and Texas) and declining (e.g., Alabama and Mississippi) Southern states. Just as Kevin Phillips presciently predicted the growth of the Republican Party–especially in the South–in the late 1960’s, Morris provides a glimpse into a future where the Democratic Party plays a far greater role in southern (and national) politics.
Professor Morris is the William T. Kretzer Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Executive Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State University.
