gerrymandering

gerrymandering
M.boli · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Gerrymandering
Caption	Partisan redistricting example
Type	Political practice
Introduced	1812
Location	United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India

gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to advantage particular parties, factions, or incumbents while disadvantaging rivals. Originating in early 19th-century United States politics, the practice has since appeared in democracies worldwide, producing controversies involving courts, legislatures, activists, and technologists. Major episodes have involved figures and institutions such as Thomas Jefferson, Elbridge Gerry, the United States Supreme Court, the United Kingdom Parliament, the Canadian Supreme Court, and state legislatures across Australia, India, and Brazil.

History

Early antecedents include boundary manipulations in the Ancien Régime, English Civil War, and Holy Roman Empire, but the modern nomenclature emerged from the 1812 controversy involving Elbridge Gerry, Gerry's Salamander, and the Massachusetts General Court. Nineteenth-century developments featured disputes in the United States House of Representatives, clashes during Reconstruction involving the Ku Klux Klan and Freedmen's Bureau, and redistricting battles in the Reconstruction Era. Twentieth-century milestones included rulings by the United States Supreme Court in cases like Baker v. Carr, Reynolds v. Sims, and Shaw v. Reno, as well as legislative reforms influenced by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada, and debates in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Twenty-first-century episodes involved controversies in states such as Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas, international scrutiny in India's delimitation processes, and technology-driven schemes tied to demographic data from the United States Census.

Methods and Techniques

Practitioners use techniques such as cracking and packing, often implemented with software tools developed by entities like Cambridge Analytica, academic groups at Princeton University, and projects at Stanford University. Maps are drawn using geospatial systems like Geographic Information System platforms and datasets from the United States Census Bureau, Ordnance Survey, and national statistical offices. Partisan actors, including state parties, political machines such as those led historically by Tammany Hall, and contemporary legislative caucuses in the Australian Parliament and House of Commons employ precinct-level data, voter registration files, and turnout models used by campaigns like those of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Techniques can also involve manipulating multimember districts as observed in Ireland and deploying majority-minority strategies tied to the jurisprudence of the Civil Rights Movement.

Legal and Constitutional Issues

Judicial involvement spans courts such as the United States Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Canada, European Court of Human Rights, and national high courts like the Supreme Court of India. Seminal cases include Baker v. Carr, Reynolds v. Sims, Shaw v. Reno, and post-2000 decisions such as Rucho v. Common Cause. Constitutional concerns involve apportionment provisions in documents like the United States Constitution, statutory frameworks including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Representation of the People Act 1983, and separation-of-powers debates involving state governors and legislatures in jurisdictions such as California, New York (state), and Texas. Remedies considered by courts include justiciability doctrines, standards based on equal protection clauses as in Brown v. Board of Education, and remedial mapping overseen by special masters appointed by courts including judges from the United States Court of Appeals.

Political and Electoral Effects

Effects manifest in electoral outcomes for bodies like the United States House of Representatives, the United Kingdom House of Commons, the Australian House of Representatives, and state legislatures in Brazil and Mexico. Strategic redistricting has influenced partisans such as the Democratic Party (United States), the Republican Party (United States), the Conservative Party (UK), and the Liberal Party of Australia, affecting incumbency advantage, candidate selection in primaries like those overseen by Iowa Democratic Party and turnout dynamics in contests such as midterm elections. Consequences extend to policy-making in cabinets and legislatures tied to leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair, and shape coalition dynamics observed in systems like Israel and Germany.

Measurement and Detection

Quantitative measures include the efficiency gap, partisan bias metrics used in analyses by scholars at Harvard University and Brown University, the mean-median difference, and computer-generated ensembles pioneered by researchers at Duke University and University of Chicago. Detection methods leverage statistical tests developed by mathematicians associated with Princeton University and computational approaches drawing on algorithms from groups at MIT and University of California, Berkeley. Expert witnesses in litigation often cite analyses produced by teams connected to institutions such as NYU School of Law, University of Michigan, and think tanks like the Brennan Center for Justice.

Reform Proposals and Remedies

Reform options debated in legislatures and among organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Fair Vote, and the Brennan Center for Justice include independent redistricting commissions modeled on bodies in Arizona, California, and Iowa; algorithmic mapping proposals advocated by researchers at Microsoft Research and Harvard University; proportional representation systems used in Germany and New Zealand; and statutory safeguards like transparency rules exemplified in the Freedom of Information Act context. Political campaigns for reform have been led by figures and movements including Andrew Yang, Stacey Abrams, RepresentUs, and civil society organizations active during events such as the 2018 United States elections.

Category:Electoral systems