The Long Red Thread

The Long Red Thread
Author :
Publisher : Ohio University Press
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780821447345
ISBN-13 : 0821447343
Rating : 4/5 (45 Downloads)

Synopsis The Long Red Thread by : Kyle Kondik

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.

Does Redistricting Make a Difference?

Does Redistricting Make a Difference?
Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
Total Pages : 194
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0739101927
ISBN-13 : 9780739101926
Rating : 4/5 (27 Downloads)

Synopsis Does Redistricting Make a Difference? by : Mark E. Rush

In 1812 the Jeffersonian-dominated Massachusetts legislature, with the approval of Governor Elbridge Gerry, split Essex County in an effort to dilute the strength of the Federalists. Noting the resemblance of the new, oddly shaped district to a well-known amphibian, a local newspaper dubbed the creation a "gerrymander." Less well known about this oft-recounted episode of American history, writes political scientist Mark Rush, is its outcome: in the ensuing election, the Federalists won the district anyway. Today, politically divisive redistricting--gerrymandering to some--still causes bitter reapportionment disputes, renewed threats of class action lawsuits, and legislative wrangling. In Does Redistricting Make a Difference? Rush offers a skeptical inquiry into this controversy and a critical assessment of the assumptions underlying current analyses of the redistricting process. He focuses on long-term voting results in redrawn districts and concludes that redistricting--at least given present criteria and guidelines--has little impact. By showing how difficult it is to perpetrate a successful partisan gerrymander, Rush challenges the notion that an electorate can be organized into Democratic and Republican "groups." He further questions the validity of current political research--and highly paid political consulting--undertaken on the assumption that such organization is feasible. Certain to provoke discussion and debate, Does Redistricting make a Difference? is a timely look at a topic as controversial today as it was in the days of Elbridge Gerry.

Drawing the Lines

Drawing the Lines
Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Total Pages : 159
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781501707780
ISBN-13 : 1501707787
Rating : 4/5 (80 Downloads)

Synopsis Drawing the Lines by : Nicholas R. Seabrook

Radical redistricting plans, such as that pushed through by Texas governor Rick Perry in 2003, are frequently used for partisan purposes. Perry's plan sent twenty-one Republicans (and only eleven Democrats) to Congress in the 2004 elections. Such heavy-handed tactics strike many as contrary to basic democratic principles. In Drawing the Lines, Nicholas R. Seabrook uses a combination of political science methods and legal studies insights to investigate the effects of redistricting on U.S. House elections. He concludes that partisan gerrymandering poses far less of a threat to democratic accountability than conventional wisdom would suggest.Building on a large data set of the demographics of redrawn districts and subsequent congressional elections, Seabrook looks less at the who and how of gerrymandering and considers more closely the practical effects of partisan redistricting plans. He finds that the redrawing of districts often results in no detrimental effect for district-level competition. Short-term benefits in terms of capturing seats are sometimes achieved but long-term results are uncertain. By focusing on the end results rather than on the motivations of political actors, Seabrook seeks to recast the political debate about the importance of partisanship. He supports institutionalizing metrics for competitiveness that would prove more threatening to all incumbents no matter their party affiliation.

The Realities of Redistricting

The Realities of Redistricting
Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
Total Pages : 268
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0739121855
ISBN-13 : 9780739121856
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Synopsis The Realities of Redistricting by : Jonathan Winburn

This book tests the effectiveness of political control and neutral rules on limiting partisan gerrymandering in state legislative redistricting. Specifically, the book examines the 2000 redistricting process in eight states_Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Washington.

Redistricting and Representation

Redistricting and Representation
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 158
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781135925215
ISBN-13 : 1135925216
Rating : 4/5 (15 Downloads)

Synopsis Redistricting and Representation by : Thomas Brunell

Pundits have observed that if so many incumbents are returned to Congress to each election by such wide margins, perhaps we should look for ways to increase competitiveness – a centerpiece to the American way of life – through redistricting. Do competitive elections increase voter satisfaction? How does voting for a losing candidate affect voters’ attitudes toward government? The not-so-surprising conclusion is that losing voters are less satisfied with Congress and their Representative, but the implications for the way in which we draw congressional and state legislative districts are less straightforward. Redistricting and Representation argues that competition in general elections is not the sine qua non of healthy democracy, and that it in fact contributes to the low levels of approval of Congress and its members. Brunell makes the case for a radical departure from traditional approaches to redistricting – arguing that we need to "pack" districts with as many like-minded partisans as possible, maximizing the number of winning voters, not losers.

Partisan Gerrymandering and the Construction of American Democracy

Partisan Gerrymandering and the Construction of American Democracy
Author :
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Total Pages : 237
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780472119011
ISBN-13 : 047211901X
Rating : 4/5 (11 Downloads)

Synopsis Partisan Gerrymandering and the Construction of American Democracy by : Erik J. Engstrom

Since the nation’s founding, the strategic manipulation of congressional districts has influenced American politics and public policy

The Great Alignment

The Great Alignment
Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
Total Pages : 215
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780300235128
ISBN-13 : 0300235127
Rating : 4/5 (28 Downloads)

Synopsis The Great Alignment by : Alan I. Abramowitz

Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of “negative partisanship”; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.

Gerrymandering in America

Gerrymandering in America
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 269
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781316589335
ISBN-13 : 1316589331
Rating : 4/5 (35 Downloads)

Synopsis Gerrymandering in America by : Anthony J. McGann

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.

Ideology and Congress

Ideology and Congress
Author :
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
Total Pages : 363
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781412809252
ISBN-13 : 1412809258
Rating : 4/5 (52 Downloads)

Synopsis Ideology and Congress by : Keith T. Poole

In Ideology and Congress, authors Poole and Rosenthal have analyzed over 13 million individual roll call votes spanning the two centuries since Congress began recording votes in 1789. By tracing the voting patterns of Congress throughout the country's history, the authors find that, despite a wide array of issues facing legislators, over 81 percent of their voting decisions can be attributed to a consistent ideological position ranging from ultraconservatism to ultraliberalism. In their classic 1997 volume, Congress: A Political Economic History of Roll Call Voting, roll call voting became the framework for a novel interpretation of important episodes in American political and economic history. Congress demonstrated that roll call voting has a very simple structure and that, for most of American history, roll call voting patterns have maintained a core stability based on two great issues: the extent of government regulation of, and intervention in, the economy; and race. In this new, paperback volume, the authors include nineteen years of additional data, bringing in the period from 1986 through 2004.

The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems

The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 1017
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190258672
ISBN-13 : 0190258675
Rating : 4/5 (72 Downloads)

Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems by : Erik S. Herron

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.