Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-25T22:54:31.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Drawing the Line on District Competition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2006

Michael P. McDonald
Michael P. McDonald
Affiliation:
George Mason University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In “Don't Blame Redistricting for Uncompetitive Elections” in this issue of PS: Political Science and Politics, Abramowitz, Alexander, and Gunning (2006) argue that redistricting is not responsible for the decline in the number of competitive districts, defined as a district with a near balance of partisanship. Further, the authors claim that non-partisan redistricting institutions are not correlated with the number of competitive districts. The relationship between redistricting institutions and competitive districts is of importance not only to academics who study redistricting and elections, but also to policy makers and reformers who advocate redistricting reform. If these claims are true, then policymakers are expending much misguided effort to enact redistricting reform to treat the greater problem of the decline of electoral competition in recent U.S. congressional elections.

Type
FEATURES
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 91 - 94
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitz, Alan, Brad Alexander, and Matthew Gunning. 2006. “Don't Blame Redistricting for Uncompetitive Elections.” PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January): 87–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barone, Michael, Grant Ujifusta, and Douglas Matthews. Various Years. The Almanac of American Politics. Washington, D.C.: National Journal.Google Scholar
Butler, David, and Bruce E. Cain. 1992. Congressional Redistricting: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cain, Bruce E., Karin Mac Donald, and Michael P. McDonald. 2005. “ From Equality to Fairness: The Path of Political Reform Since Baker v Carr.” In Party Lines: Competition, Partisanship and Congressional Redistricting, eds. Bruce Cain and Thomas Mann. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and Jonathan N. Katz. 1999. “The Reapportionment Revolution and Bias in U.S. Congressional Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 43(3): 812–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Paul. 1999. “Activists Want Voters to Circumvent Legislature on Redistricting.” The Associated Press State and Local Wire. September 13.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Gary King. 1994a. “A Unified Method of Evaluating Electoral Systems and Redistricting Plans.” American Journal of Political Science 38(2): 514–54.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Gary King. 1994b. “Enhancing Democracy through Legislative Redistricting.” American Political Science Review 88(3): 541–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronke, Paul, and J. Matthew Wilson. 1999. “Competing Redistricting Plans as Evidence of Political Motives.” American Politics Quarterly 27(2): 147–76.Google Scholar
Lacy, Dean, and Barry C. Burden. 1999. “The Vote-Stealing and Turnout Effects of Ross Perot in the 1992 U.S. Presidential Election.” American Journal of Political Science 43(1): 233–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, David R. 1974. “Congressional Elections: The Case of the Vanishing Marginals.” Polity (spring): 295–317.Google Scholar
McDonald, Michael P. 2004. “A Comparative Analysis of U.S. State Redistricting Institutions.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 4(4): 371–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., and John Deegan Jr. 1978. “A Theory of Political Districting.” American Political Science Review 72(4): 1304–23.Google Scholar
Owen, Guillermo, and Bernard N. Grofman. 1988. “Optimal Partisan Gerrymandering.” Political Geography Quarterly 7(1): 5–22.Google Scholar
Swain, John W., Stephen A Borrelli, and Brian C Reed. 1998. “Partisan Consequences of the Post-1990 Redistricting for the U.S. House of Representatives.” Political Research Quarterly 51(4): 945–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tufte, Edward R. 1973. “The Relationship between Seats and Votes in Two-Party Systems.” American Political Science Review 67(2): 540–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar