Redistricting and Representation

Redistricting and Representation PDF Author: Thomas Brunell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135925216
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Pundits have observed that if so many incumbents are returned to Congress to each election by such wide margins, perhaps we should look for ways to increase competitiveness – a centerpiece to the American way of life – through redistricting. Do competitive elections increase voter satisfaction? How does voting for a losing candidate affect voters’ attitudes toward government? The not-so-surprising conclusion is that losing voters are less satisfied with Congress and their Representative, but the implications for the way in which we draw congressional and state legislative districts are less straightforward. Redistricting and Representation argues that competition in general elections is not the sine qua non of healthy democracy, and that it in fact contributes to the low levels of approval of Congress and its members. Brunell makes the case for a radical departure from traditional approaches to redistricting – arguing that we need to "pack" districts with as many like-minded partisans as possible, maximizing the number of winning voters, not losers.

Redistricting and Representation

Redistricting and Representation PDF Author: Thomas Brunell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135925216
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description
Pundits have observed that if so many incumbents are returned to Congress to each election by such wide margins, perhaps we should look for ways to increase competitiveness – a centerpiece to the American way of life – through redistricting. Do competitive elections increase voter satisfaction? How does voting for a losing candidate affect voters’ attitudes toward government? The not-so-surprising conclusion is that losing voters are less satisfied with Congress and their Representative, but the implications for the way in which we draw congressional and state legislative districts are less straightforward. Redistricting and Representation argues that competition in general elections is not the sine qua non of healthy democracy, and that it in fact contributes to the low levels of approval of Congress and its members. Brunell makes the case for a radical departure from traditional approaches to redistricting – arguing that we need to "pack" districts with as many like-minded partisans as possible, maximizing the number of winning voters, not losers.

Redistricting

Redistricting PDF Author: Charles S. Bullock
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153814963X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A 2022 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title This authoritative overview of election redistricting at the congressional, state legislative, and local level provides offers an overview of redistricting for students and practitioners. The updated second edition pays special attention to the significant redistricting controversies of the last decade, from the Supreme Court to state courts.

Special Issue: Controversies in Political Redistricting: GIS, Geography and Society

Special Issue: Controversies in Political Redistricting: GIS, Geography and Society PDF Author: Munroe Eagles
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


Controversies in Political Redistricting

Controversies in Political Redistricting PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description


Party Lines

Party Lines PDF Author: Thomas E. Mann
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815797923
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
The legitimacy of the American electoral system depends on sustaining reasonable levels of fairness, accountability, responsiveness, and common sense. Recent Congressional elections fly in the face of those requirements, however, with a startling lack of competition, growing ideological polarization, and a fierce struggle between the parties to manipulate the electoral rules of the game. Party Lines addresses these problems head on in an authoritative and timely analysis of redistricting in the United States. The practice of state legislatures redrawing district lines after the decennial census has long been a controversial aspect of our governing system. Recent developments have added new urgency to earlier debates. The sorry spectacle of mid-decade partisan gerrymandering in Texas renewed public attention to the potential problems of redistricting, reinforcing the view that it is unfairly dominated by self-serving elected officials and parties. The perfunctory character of Congressional elections is another growing problem—in 2002, only four House incumbents were defeated in the general election, the lowest in American history. Despite a hotly contested presidential contest in 2004, that number increased by only three. In Pa rty Lines, eminent political analysts explain the legal and political history of redistricting since the one person–one vote revolution in the 1960s and place it in the larger context of American politics. The authors document the impact of redistricting on competition, polarization, and partisan fairness, and they assess the role technology played in the redistricting process. The final chapter analyzes options for reform, including most importantly the use of independent redistricting commissions as an alternative to the normal state legislative process. Redistricting reform is no panacea but it is a start toward ensuring that American voters still have the largest say in who will represent them. Contributors include Micah

Enforcing and Challenging the Voting Rights Act

Enforcing and Challenging the Voting Rights Act PDF Author: Marsha Darling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135730385
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Ground War

Ground War PDF Author: Assistant Professor of Political Science Nicholas Goedert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197626629
Category : Apportionment (Election law)
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
"Partisan gerrymandering, the drawing of legislative district lines to deliberately favor one political party, has been present and controversial in American politics since before the ratification of our Constitution. Yet in the past couple of decades, parties in power at the state level have developed greater expertise than ever before at redistricting to their own advantage. In Ground War, Nicholas Goedert tackles the controversies, litigation, and effects surrounding partisan gerrymandering of the US Congress. Using multiple empirical approaches and a novel metric to measure the partisan fairness of maps, Goedert argues that nonpartisan redistricting commisions, rather than the US courts, represent the best alternative to legislative redistricting." -- back cover.

The Long Red Thread

The Long Red Thread PDF Author: Kyle Kondik
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821447343
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
An incisive study that shows how Republicans transformed the US House of Representatives into a consistent GOP stronghold—with or without a majority. Long-term Democratic dominance in the US House of Representatives gave way to a Republican electoral advantage and frequently held majority following the GOP takeover in 1994. Republicans haven’t always held the majority in recent decades, but nationalization, partisan realignment, and the gerrymandering of House seats have contributed to a political climate in which they've had an edge more often than not for nearly thirty years. The Long Red Thread examines each House election cycle from 1964 to 2020, surveying academic and journalistic literature to identify key trends and takeaways from more than a half-century of US House election results in order to predict what Americans can expect to see in the future.

Controversies in Minority Voting

Controversies in Minority Voting PDF Author: Bernard N. Grofman
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815707257
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Widely regarded as one of the most successful pieces of modern legislation, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has transformed the nature of minority participation and representation in the United States. But with success came controversy as some scholars claim the Act has outlived its usefulness or been subverted in its aim. This volume brings together leading scholars to offer a twenty-five year perspective on the consequences of this landmark act. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, stated that the right of U.S. citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or condition of previous servitude." The South, however, virtually ignored this right, disfranchising blacks through violence, intimidation, literacy tests, and poll taxes. The primary purpose of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was to break down these barriers to minority voting. Beginning with chapters covering the key provisions of the Act, the book discusses the way the Act has transformed American politics and looks at the role played by major civil rights groups in lobbying for extensions and amendments to it and in insuring that its provisions would be enforced.

Political Gerrymandering and the Courts

Political Gerrymandering and the Courts PDF Author: Bernard Grofman
Publisher: Algora Publishing
ISBN: 0875862632
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
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.