POL 140D Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Gerrymandering, Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship, Voting Rights Act Of 1965
30 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Elections in american politics where there was a massive swing in # of seats controlled by a party. Try and draw districts that are going to protect the incumbent (creating an overwhelming majority for incumbent: in 19th century, the democrats were pursuing an efficient gerrymander approach. Eldridge gerry drew salamander districts, and now we have gerrymander. Districts typically were voting a straight ticket, republicans voting republican and dems voting dem. Districting explains critical elections: 51-48 > dem party just barely winning; they can easily lose when a relatively small number of voters shift over > ex. 49-51: efficient gerrymandering led to huge numbers of losses with a small swing. Districting has been a major part of efforts to improve descriptive representation in the u. s. Descriptive representation: representatives will look like the people from district: district value in having role models of all races (and who look like us , 2nd class status for those who don"t hold office.
