Are Urban or Rural Congressional Districts More Paretian?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Congressional Districts

Silence of the Land: On the Historical Irrelevance of Territory to Congressional Districting and Political Representation in the United States

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Communities Of Interest

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.

Winning the Future? Redistricting and Partisan Bias

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas R. Seabrook
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Absence Of Evidence

This chapter examines the extent to which partisan redistricting creates long-term distortions in congressional elections compared to other types of redistricting. The Supreme Court's failure so far to agree on a coherent and definitive test with which to adjudicate the issue of partisan gerrymandering has been predicated in large part on the absence of evidence of pervasive and long-lasting effects sufficient to meet the Davis v. Bandemer standard. It is thus necessary to determine exactly how effective partisan gerrymandering has been in terms of its long-term benefits to the gerrymandering party. This chapter considers the effects of control of redistricting on aggregate electoral disproportionality and partisan bias, as well as on the outcomes of elections in individual congressional districts. In particular, it discusses the probability that the Democratic Party candidate will win the election in a House district in a given year. The results suggest that partisan gerrymandering can produce a small but sometimes persistent bias in favor of the party that implemented the redistricting plan.

The United States of In-between

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
The U.S

The author concludes her exploration of the U.S. borderlands with a meditation on the concept of borderlines. They don’t just delineate countries. Political parties are highly adept at redrawing the lines of congressional districts with a legal magic that—at the ballot box—brings about “miracles” on par with La Virgen de Guadalupe (only nowhere near as hopeful). For a borderline is an injustice. It is a time-held method of partitioning the planet for the benefit of the elite. Fortunately, there are legions of activists, artists, and faith keepers out there, petitioning on humanity’s behalf, but they need serious reinforcement. For the greatest lesson in nepantla is that many borderlines needn’t exist at all.

Congressional District Results

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-100
Author(s):  
Daron R. Shaw ◽  
John R. Petrocik
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Age Profile ◽  
Democratic Vote ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Variables

There are demographic and political factors beyond turnout that matter for elections. Congressional districts are sufficiently small and homogeneous to permit an examination of turnout in the context of relevant political and demographic variables. That controlled analysis is presented here. For the two most recent decades, this chapter uses data sets that include relevant demographic and political variables for each of the congressional districts, including the ethnicity of the electorate, its age profile, and district income to account for the effect of socioeconomic status on the Democratic vote share. This contextual information presses the analysis one level further. An estimation of the relationship between turnout and Democratic vote is strengthened when other factors that are known to influence support for the Democrats are considered and included in the models.

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