Spatial Distribution of Partisan Support and the Seats/Votes Relationship

Wildgen, John K.; Engstrom, Richard L.

doi:10.2307/439554

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Using a simulation of 50 elections, Wildgen and Engstrom showed that, after the removal of the effect of party strength on the number of seats obtained, more than half of the remaining variance was explained by geographical distribution of party votes. They concluded that the spatial distribution of partisan or group support should be taken into account in any measure of gerrymandering (Wildgen and Engstrom 1980). Special consideration was given to determination of the electoral mosaic in this present study.…”

Section: A Methods Of Evaluating Alleged Gerrymandersmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Identification and Evaluation of Racial Gerrymandering

Ο’Loughlin

1982

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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Despite the elimination of differences in the population sizes of election districts, gerrymandering of district boundaries remains an obstacle to full equality for all social and political groups. Legal challenges to district lines on grounds of racial-vote dilution frequently fail because plaintiffs cannot show evidence of discriminatory intent on the part of the redistricting authorities and because no accepted measure of gerrymandering has been developed. A disputed redistricting may be one of hundreds of feasible, constitutional ways to redraw district lines. Charges of racial bias were evaluated using a statistical framework. Congressional districts in Manhattan were favorable to blacks, whereas districts in New Orleans and Mississippi were unfairly drawn to dilute black voting power. Courts, academics, and legal experts can use this evaluation method to determine the fairness of a proposed reapportionment or to judge a plan's equity for social or political interest groups.

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Section: A Methods Of Evaluating Alleged Gerrymandersmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Identification and Evaluation of Racial Gerrymandering

Ο’Loughlin

1982

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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“…32 Wildgen and Engstrom 1980, 424;Shotts 2002;Cain, MacDonald, and McDonald 2005, 22-6;McKee and Shaw 2005, 282. 33 Arrington 2003Arrington , 2009Grofman and Brunell 2005, 196;Shaw 2005, 283, Engstrom 2006B, 92;also see McCrary 1990and Katz et al 2006. Engstrom (1980, and both majority status and concentrations vary from state to state.…”

Section: Intersection Of Partisanship and Affirmative Districtingmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…This subject is often covered by geographers such as Forest (1995), Gudgin and Taylor (1979), Taylor (1973A&B), Agnew (1996), and Richard L. Morrill cited extensively elsewhere. For works on the ability to draw an effective gerrymander given the political geography, see Wildgen and Engstrom (1980); Gudgin and Taylor (1974); Shotts (2001Shotts ( , 2002; McDonald (2007, 677); and Owen and Grofman (1988). Reapportionment Task Force (1999) deal separately with each of the 50 states in the 1980 and 1990 cycles, respectively, but with no comparative analysis.…”

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confidence: 99%

Redistricting in the U.S.: A Review of Scholarship and Plan for Future Research

Arrington¹

2010

The Forum

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The nation-wide cycle of redistricting is the most consequential, repetitive decision-making process shaping the nature of American democracy. Because the arrangement of the districts forms an essential part of the rules of the game, the process by which they are drawn is meta-politics or a quasi-constitution making activity. The research on this process is voluminous and includes bits and pieces of the process. But the process is complicated, in part because the criteria for redistricting are in conflict with one another. The criteria include considerations of political geography, physical features, community of interest, one person one vote, race and ethnicity, partisanship, contiguity, compactness, recognition of local political boundaries, incumbents addresses, and desires for minimal change. The literature also covers the use of geographic information systems in the process and possible reforms. But no overall theory of redistricting has been developed which includes all these features.

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“…If the two parties are of roughly equal strength, then the more concentrated group is at a disadvantage; it will win fewer constituencies but garner larger margins in the constituencies that it does win than will be true for the opposing party. On the other hand, if the two parties are disproportionate in size, then it may be advantageous for the smaller one to have its voting strength concentrated, since that way it will at least probably pick up some seats in the geographic area or areas of its greatest strength (see Gudgin and Taylor, 1979;Wildgen and Engstrom, 1980;Grofman, 1982b; for more detailed discussion and some caveats to these generalizations).…”

Section: 5mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reformers, politicians, and the courts: a preliminary look at US redistricting in the 1980s

Grofman

1982

Political Geography Quarterly

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ABSTRACT. This paper reviews a variety of criteria which have been proposed for legislative and congressional redistricting in the US and discusses the political and legal factors which have shaped 1980s redistricting. Particular attention is paid to the conflicts of interest between incumbents (seeking re-election), party organizations (seeking aggregate partisan advantage), minority interests (seeking proportional minority representation or at least enhanced minority influence), liberal reformers (seeking to take the 'politics' out of the redistricting process), and courts (seeking largely to implement 'one person, one vote' guidelines by minimizing deviation from population equality across districts but also concerned with avoiding dilutions of minority voting strength). It calls attention to three phenomena which have made redistricting in the 1980s different from that of earlier decades: (1) the striking role of the Justice Department in using the pre-clearance provision of the Voting Rights Act to assure greater minority voting strength and to eliminate discriminatory use of multi-member districting schemes; (2) the increased political and legal sophistication of minority groups; and (3) the role of the computer in making available a plethora of districting plans, all of which satisfy court equipopulation guidelines but which differ dramatically from each other in their substantive implications for the representation of political, racial, linguistic, and socio-economic groupings, and in their implications for the likely political fate of incumbent politicians and their potential challengers.

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Spatial Distribution of Partisan Support and the Seats/Votes Relationship

Cited by 20 publications

References 14 publications

The Identification and Evaluation of Racial Gerrymandering

The Identification and Evaluation of Racial Gerrymandering

Redistricting in the U.S.: A Review of Scholarship and Plan for Future Research

Reformers, politicians, and the courts: a preliminary look at US redistricting in the 1980s

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