Enhancing democracy through legislative redistricting

In: American political science review, Band 88, Heft 3, S. 541-559

Abstract

Antwortet eine Neueinteilung der Wahlkreise den Interessen der Wähler? Ist eine solche Einteilung nicht von vornherein einseitig von der aktuell dominierenden Mehrheitspartei bestimmt? Die Autoren versuchen, ihre Antwort empirisch zu bestätigen, daß eine Neueinteilung von Wahlkreisen trotz unvermeidlicher Einseitigkeiten positive Effekte zeitigt. "For one, our results demonstrate that contrary to all previous researchers, redistricting in state legislatures has substantially increased electoral responsiveness and kept it higher that it would be otherwise for about half of all elections in each state. The effects of any one redistricting are not permanent, but the decennial redistricting process repeatedly injects the political system with a healthy dose of increased responsiveness. For partisan bias, we have identified a difference in the causal question asked by two groups of researchers, making both sides in this controversy correct to a degree. Our results indicate that partisan and bipartisan redistricting plans reduce bias overall, leading to fairer electoral systems than if there had been no redistricting, but the difference between democratic-, bipartisan-, and republican-controlled redistricting plans within this smaller and comparatively fairer region are still politically significant." (AuD-Nar)