Download or read book Elbridge Gerry s Salamander written by Gary W. Cox and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-03-04 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description.
Download or read book Partisan Gerrymandering and the Construction of American Democracy written by Erik J. Engstrom and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the nation’s founding, the strategic manipulation of congressional districts has influenced American politics and public policy
Download or read book On Democracy s Doorstep written by J. Douglas Smith and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The inside story of the Supreme Court decisions that brought true democracy to the United States Today, Earl Warren is recalled as the chief justice of a Supreme Court that introduced school desegregation and other dramatic changes to American society. In retirement, however, Warren argued that his court's greatest accomplishment was establishing the principle of "one person, one vote" in state legislative and congressional redistricting. Malapportionment, Warren recognized, subverted the will of the majority, privileging rural voters, and often business interests and whites, over others. In declaring nearly all state legislatures unconstitutional, the court oversaw a revolution that transformed the exercise of political power in the United States. On Democracy's Doorstep tells the story of this crucial--and neglected--episode. J. Douglas Smith follows lawyers, activists, and Justice Department officials as they approach the court. We see Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy pushing for radical change and idealistic lawyers in Alabama bravely defying their peers. We then watch as the justices edge toward their momentous decision. The Washington Post called the result a step "toward establishing democracy in the United States." But not everyone agreed; Smith shows that business lobbies and their political allies attempted to overturn the court by calling the first Constitutional Convention since the 1780s. Thirty-three states ratified their petition--just one short of the two-thirds required"--
Download or read book Gerrymandering in America written by Anthony J. McGann and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-04 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the political and constitutional consequences of Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004), where the Supreme Court held that partisan gerrymandering challenges could no longer be adjudicated by the courts. Through a rigorous scientific analysis of US House district maps, the authors argue that partisan bias increased dramatically in the 2010 redistricting round after the Vieth decision, both at the national and state level. From a constitutional perspective, unrestrained partisan gerrymandering poses a critical threat to a central pillar of American democracy, popular sovereignty. State legislatures now effectively determine the political composition of the US House. The book answers the Court's challenge to find a new standard for gerrymandering that is both constitutionally grounded and legally manageable. It argues that the scientifically rigorous partisan symmetry measure is an appropriate legal standard for partisan gerrymandering, as it logically implies the constitutional right to individual equality and can be practically applied.
Download or read book The Long Red Thread written by Kyle Kondik and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Partisan Supremacy written by Terri Jennings Peretti and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-11-20 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I have no agenda,” US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts proclaimed at his Senate confirmation hearing: “My job is to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.” This declaration was in keeping with the avowed independence of the judiciary. It also, when viewed through the lens of Roberts’s election law decisions, appears to be false. With a scrupulous reading of judicial decisions and a careful assessment of partisan causes and consequences, Terri Jennings Peretti tells the story of the GOP’s largely successful campaign to enlist judicial aid for its self-interested election reform agenda. Partisan Supremacy explores four contemporary election law issues—voter identification, gerrymandering, campaign finance, and the preclearance regime of the Voting Rights Act—to uncover whether Republican politicians and Republican judges have collaborated to tilt America’s election rules in the GOP’s favor. Considering cases from Shelby County v. Holder, which enfeebled the Voting Rights Act, to Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, which upheld restrictive voter identification laws, to Citizens United and McCutcheon, which loosened campaign finance restrictions, Peretti lays bare the reality of “friendly” judicial review and partisan supremacy when it comes to election law. She nonetheless finds a mixed verdict in the redistricting area that reveals the limits of partisan control over judicial decisions. Peretti’s book helpfully places the current GOP’s voter suppression campaign in historical context by acknowledging similar efforts by the postCivil War Democratic Party. While the modern Democratic Party seeks electoral advantage by expanding voting by America’s minorities and youth, arguably hewing closer to democratic principles, neither party is immune to the powerful incentive to bend election rules in its favor. In view of the evidence that Partisan Supremacy brings to light, we are left with a critical and pressing question: Can democracy survive in the face of partisan collaboration across the branches of government on critical election issues?
Download or read book Bushmanders Bullwinkles written by Mark Monmonier and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-02-15 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years Mark Monmonier, "a prose stylist of no mean ability or charm" according to the Washington Post, has delighted readers with his insightful understanding of cartography as an art and technology that is both deceptive and revealing. Now he turns his focus to the story of political cartography and the redrawing of congressional districts. His title Bushmanders and Bullwinkles combines gerrymander with the surname of the president who actively tolerated racial gerrymandering and draws attention to the ridiculously shaped congressional districts that evoke the antlers of the moose who shared the cartoon spotlight with Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Written from the perspective of a cartographer rather than a political scientist, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles examines the political tales maps tell when votes and power are at stake. Monmonier shows how redistricting committees carve out favorable election districts for themselves and their allies; how disgruntled politicians use shape to challenge alleged racial gerrymanders; and how geographic information systems can make reapportionment a controversial process with outrageous products. He also explores controversies over the proper roles of natural boundaries, media maps, census enumeration, and ethnic identity. Raising important questions about Supreme Court decisions in regulating redistricting, Monmonier asks if the focus on form rather than function may be little more than a distraction from larger issues like election reform. Characterized by the same wit and clarity as Monmonier's previous books, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles is essential background for understanding what might prove the most contentious political debate of the new decade.
Download or read book Low Taxes and Small Government written by Michael A. Smith and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sam Brownback was the first modern-day conservative to be elected governor of Kansas, the culmination of a rightward shift in the state's often-dominant Republican Party. This book is a detailed case study of the policies implemented over his two terms as governor, paying particular attention to the impact on state government and services, the economy, public education, and the business environment. The authors provide extensive background, historical evidence, and detailed references. The book's real-world relevance is grounded in a discussion of similar policies in other states as well as the US federal government.
Download or read book Redistricting written by Charles S. Bullock and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-03-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Ketchum V Byrne written by and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Law of Democracy written by Samuel Issacharoff and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 1286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Law of Democracy offers a systematic exploration of the legal construction of American democracy. The book brings together a cluster of issues in law regulating the design of democratic institutions, and the book employs a variety of methods - historical, comparative, theoretical, doctrinal - to explore foundational questions in the theory and practice of democracy. Covered issues include the historical development of the individual right to vote; current struggles over racial gerrymandering; the relationship of the state to political parties; the constitutional and policy issues surrounding campaign-finance reform; and the tension between majority rule and fair representation of minorities in democratic bodies.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems written by Erik S. Herron and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 1017 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No subject is more central to the study of politics than elections. All across the globe, elections are a focal point for citizens, the media, and politicians long before--and sometimes long after--they occur. Electoral systems, the rules about how voters' preferences are translated into election results, profoundly shape the results not only of individual elections but also of many other important political outcomes, including party systems, candidate selection, and policy choices. Electoral systems have been a hot topic in established democracies from the UK and Italy to New Zealand and Japan. Even in the United States, events like the 2016 presidential election and court decisions such as Citizens United have sparked advocates to promote change in the Electoral College, redistricting, and campaign-finance rules. Elections and electoral systems have also intensified as a field of academic study, with groundbreaking work over the past decade sharpening our understanding of how electoral systems fundamentally shape the connections among citizens, government, and policy. This volume provides an in-depth exploration of the origins and effects of electoral systems.
Download or read book The Politics of Size written by Rosemarie Zagarri and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using concepts of historical geography, Rosemarie Zagarri examines how Americans' notions about space influenced the writing of the U.S. Constitution and the shaping of the nation's political institutions.
Download or read book Fair Representation written by Michel L. Balinski and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issue of fair representation will take center stage as U.S. congressional districts are reapportioned based on the 2000 Census. Using U.S. history as a guide, the authors develop a theory of fair representation that establishes various principles for translating state populations—or vote totals of parties—into a fair allocation of congressional seats. They conclude that the current apportionment formula cheats the larger states in favor of the smaller, contrary to the intentions of the founding fathers and compromising the Supreme Court's "one man, one vote" rulings. Balinski and Young interweave the theoretical development with a rich historical account of controversies over representation, and show how many of these principles grew out of political contests in the course of United States history. The result is a work that is at once history, politics, and popular science. The book—updated with data from the 1980 and 1990 Census counts—vividly demonstrates that apportionment deals with the very substance of political power.
Download or read book The Constitution in Congress written by David P. Currie and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1997-05-15 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thus the First Congress left us a rich legacy of arguments over the meaning of a variety of constitutional provisions, and the quality of those arguments was impressively high.
Download or read book Differential Undercounts in the U S Census written by William P. O’Hare and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-13 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book describes the differences in US census coverage, also referred to as “differential undercount”, by showing which groups have the highest net undercounts and which groups have the greatest undercount differentials, and discusses why such undercounts occur. In addition to focusing on measuring census coverage for several demographic characteristics, including age, gender, race, Hispanic origin status, and tenure, it also considers several of the main hard-to-count populations, such as immigrants, the homeless, the LBGT community, children in foster care, and the disabled. However, given the dearth of accurate undercount data for these groups, they are covered less comprehensively than those demographic groups for which there is reliable undercount data from the Census Bureau. This book is of interest to demographers, statisticians, survey methodologists, and all those interested in census coverage.
Download or read book Reapportionment Politics written by Leroy Clyde Hardy and published by SAGE Publications, Incorporated. This book was released on 1981-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of re-apportionment in the United States. Fifty eight distinguished contributors show in a state-by-state format how re-apportionment has shaped the politics of the states, and how it continues to do so after a recent federal census. The balance of parties in both state and federal legislatures, the voice of minority groups, even the role of local governments can be manipulated by redistricting.
