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In his critique of our earlier paper on majority-minority voting districts, David Lublin suggests that our conclusions with respect to the election of minorities to office are flawed, and that we incorrectly estimate optimal districting strategies for the substantive representation of minority interests in Congress. Subjecting these claims to direct empirical examination, we find that our previous results are unaltered by the inclusion of Latino voters in our estimates of equal opportunity, and that incumbency advantage cannot fully explain the recent victories of minority candidates in the South. Neither do the critiques of our results regarding substantive representation stand up to systematic analysis: Evidence at both the state level and over time confirm our conclusion that districts on the order of 45% black voting age population maximize the expected number of votes for minority-supported legislation.

Lublin, David: Racial redistricting and African-American representation. In: American Political Science Review (Washington/D.C.), 93 (March 1999) 1, S. 183-186

The progressive politics of the information age, called "the third way," a title that emphasizes its differences from laissez-faire conservatism & welfare-state liberalism, is experiencing success in most North American & West European countries. This success can be traced to the economic insecurities & social dislocations caused from the transition to economies based on high technology & global trade. The Democratic Leadership Council's (DLC) style of third way politics targets affluent voters, recommends the partial privatization of social insurance programs, & uses caution in what it calls class warfare. The author argues for the use of the third way to stabilize economic insecurity & inequality, to set rules, make investments, & build institutions to help working people to succeed through changing times. The third way has immense potential if it can evolve toward substantive engagement & transformation of today's advanced economics by jettisoning the current conservative economic consensus of fiscal austerity, increased labor market flexibility, & unfettered globalization. The third way is rooted in progressive traditions, particularly the interaction between the Democrats in the US & the left-of-center political parties in the UK & Western Europe, with distinctive elements taken from US politics, including: (1) they are more critical of government & more empowering to individuals; (2) social problems are recognized; (3) the power of the state in empowering individuals, especially through education & training is emphasized; & (4) investing in people's skills & easing economic inequalities are linked to the practical imperatives of improving economic competitiveness & strengthening social cohesion. The author argues that the third way, if used for policy achievements that improve lives, could transform US politics & economics. L. A. Hoffman

Examines both the continuity & the change in elite demographics & political opinions over the past decades, based on a comparison of results of a 1979-1984 interview study (Lerner, Robert, Nagai, Althea, & Rothman, Stanley, 1996) of 1,861 members of strategic elite groups in the US & a 1995 replication via computer-assisted telephone interviews with members (N not specified) of 9 strategic elite groups. Although women & minorities are represented in greater numbers in the late 1990s than in previous decades, white men continue to dominate the major leadership groups in the US. The data, however, reveal that US leaders do not constitute a unified, monolithic "overclass"; rather, results reveal that elites from various leadership sectors come from different backgrounds & differ sharply on a variety of issues, revealing patterns of polarization & differentiation between various elite groups. Cultural elites remain well to the Left of more traditional leadership groups on most issues. 8 Tables, 2 Appendixes, 37 References. Adapted from the source document.