Pipa: Forging a New Compact with Overlooked America
In Toward a New Compact With Rural America, Anthony F. Pipa (Center for Sustainable Development, Brookings Institution) outlines challenges facing rural America and suggests public policy interventions that could serve as solutions. Pipa’s essay is the foreword to a wider symposium edition published by the University of Richmond Law Review titled, Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues in Rural United States, that collects several articles under this theme. The entire symposium is likely of interest to readers of the Rural Review.
According to Pipa, the primary challenges facing rural areas are fueled by the widespread and interconnected narratives of rural decline and of urban-rural divide. The narrative of rural decline implies that rural places are unable to thrive in the modern economy. The narrative of urban-rural divide reinforces ideas of a geographic political polarization. Both rely on broad stereotypes, elicit superficial analysis that often result in “rural bashing,” and undermine the interdependences between rural and urban places.
Pipa briefly outlines the past relationship between public policy and rural America. As demonstrated in the rural electrification and housing efforts in the 1930s and 40s, public policy was historically used to help rural communities thrive by facilitating connections between rural and urban areas. However, more recent policy decisions have reflected a shift in focus that no longer seeks to facilitate this important connection.
As a whole, this Symposium edition focuses on public policies that could again help address rural America's key challenges. Other articles in this Symposium are:
Rural America as Commons, Ann M. Eisenberg (South Carolina Law)
Those Who Need the Most, Get the Least: The Challenge of, and Opportunity for Helping Rural Virginia, Andrew Block and Antonella Nicholas (both Virginia Law)
Enhancing Rural Representation Through Electoral System Diversity, Henry L. Chambers, Jr. (Richmond Law)
With a Wink and a Nod: How Politicians, Regulators, and Corrupt Coal Companies Exploited Appalachia, Patrick C. McGinley (West Virginia Law)
Rural Bashing, Kaceylee Klein and Lisa R. Pruitt (both UC-Davis Law)
Duped by Dope: The Sackler Family’s Attempt to Escape Opioid Liability and the Need to Close the Non-Debtor Release Loophole, Bryson T. Strachan (Richmond Law)
The Symposium issue also includes this transcript of a panel discussing opioid litigation.
All of the articles in this Symposium seek to restart more rigorous discussion of rural resource allocation, disparities in rural access, and rural representation in politics. Pipa connects these themes by emphasizing that public policy is at the nexus of the United States' ability to reweave the social fabric and create a new compact between rural areas and the rest of the country. The Symposium articles serve as a starting point in provoking new and constructive policy debates.
