Suchergebnisse

This volume is motivated by three concerns. First is the belief that the issue of political gerrymander will play a significant (although far from dominant) role in redistricting litigation in the 1990s and thereafter. In the 1980s, the legislative and/or congressional redistricting plans of all but a handful of states were subject to lawsuits (Grofman, 1985a). Many of these lawsuits involved the issue of racial vote dilution (Grofman, Migalski, and Noviello, 1985). In the 1980s hundreds of local jurisdictions that used at-large or multimember district elections had their electoral system chal

A portrait of how the 1990s round of redistricting treated the racial and linguistic minorities that had been given special protections by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, primarily African-Americans, but also Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and those of Spanish heritage. Throughout the volume, the primary focus is on the practical politics of redistricting and its consequences for racial representation. Almost all the authors have been directly involved in the 1990s redistricting process either as a legislator, a member of the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department, a member of a di

A portrait of how the 1990's round of redistricting treated the racial and linguistic minorities that had been given special protections by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, primarily African-Americans, but also Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and those of Spanish heritage. Throughout the volume, the primary focus is on the practical politics of redistricting and its consequences for racial representation. Almost all the authors have been directly involved in the 1990's redistricting process either as a legislator, a member of the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department, a member of a.

The greatest threat of democratic breakdown stems from the federal structure of the US Constitution and from false claims of election fraud with the potential for state- or congressional- level reversals of popular vote outcomes. The potential for such a breakdown was revealed by the events of January 6, 2021, with tens of millions of voters still believing in the big lie and the repetition of that lie by legislators and government officials. It is exacerbated by hyperpolarization, minoritarian control caused by partisan gerrymandering for state legislative districts and in the US House, malapportionment in the US Senate, and the highest likelihood of Electoral College reversals of popular vote outcomes in more than a century. Democratic breakdown is also made more likely by recent legislation that makes it easier for legislators in some gerrymandered states to reverse the outcomes of the popular vote in their states.

This article considers the potential to use knowledge of expected electoral system effects to engage in electoral engineering. The review focuses on contributions made in the past dozen or so years and is limited to five specific questions: How do electoral systems affect (a) the proportionality of seats–votes relationships, (b) party proliferation, (c) the ideological nature of party competition, (d) voter turnout, and (e) the degree of match between the preferences of citizens and the policy choices of the government?