The act of gerrymandering does threaten democracy because it aids a specific political party,it is unfair to the voters, and it allows politicians to have control over the voters. Within the gerrymandering game, the political party that was supported was commonly content and fully supported the plan while the opposition was almost always completely against the decision making it difficult to compromise. The point of a democracy is to represent everyone who has the power to vote. The two main parties in the United States are Republican and Democratic and yield the highest chance of having an official be elected for state governments, or local district governments compared to third parties. When one party gerrymanders, they weaken the other party 's chances of gaining power. If the chances …show more content…
This is undemocratic because it allows political leaders or people of high power to choose which party will govern that district and it may make it harder for the majority of the people and voters in a specific area to get what they want. Two districts may be mainly democratic and 2 districts may be mainly republican but politicians may choose to change the districts as 3 districts to be republican and 1 district to be democratic. The general public does not have a say in this therefore it is undemocratic. The act of gerrymandering has been proven to severely change the outcome of democracy by allowing politicians to choose what they want rather than let the voters who represent democracy choose. It is unfair to the party to the party that is trying to compete against the party which gerrymanders. The act of redistricting can also isolate voters of a specific party. All these acts are undoubtedly undemocratic and will continue to have a drastic impact on U.S. politics unless it is
Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing boundaries to benefit the political party in power. An example is Nevada, in which the four districts show the three forms. Gerrymandering was made after Elbridge Gerry, who was the governor of Massachusetts and Vice President of the U.S., signed a bill that redistricted the state to benefit his party, which was later called Partisan Gerrymandering. An individual observed the oddly shaped district as a "gerrymander" causing a newspaper reporter to print a cartoon of a monster based on it.
Largely due to the government system of apportionment present which was largely based on partisanship. Proving to favor Douglas, “combined with the failure to win over the Whig districts, the apportionment doomed Lincoln’s chances of
Hello Erik, I really like how you explain gerrymandering. I also agree with you that racial gerrymandering is worse than partisan gerrymandering. Gerrymandering altogether is bad and create a lot of problem and it mess with the result of the election. I really like it when you said “Racial gerrymandering is aimed towards a specific racial group and leads to the unfair and unequal treatment based upon race while partisan gerrymandering is not based upon race.” That pretty much sum it up
What is a constituency, and why do constituencies differ for representatives and senators? A constituency is a group of individual voters in a specific area who elect a representative to a legislative body. Constituencies differ for representatives and senators: • Representatives – represent a district or area of a state and sometimes a whole state • Senators – represent the whole state Explain briefly how reapportionment and redistricting work? Why is gerrymandering frowned upon?
In that document he was talking about the head of the rival party. Political parties were also responsible for gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is when the political party with the most power gets to draw districts, so they group up as many of their parties members in one district as possible in order to get more votes. Political parties had negative effects on the
Party polarization is the division between the two major parties on most policy issues, with members of each party is unified around their party’s position with little crossover. The competing explanations for polarization are how congressional representatives are elected, lawmakers selecting a candidate for office and as congressional districts and states have become more homogeneous. Every 10 years, congressional district geographic boundaries are redrawn so that each district has roughly the same population. These districts are increasingly drawn to be safe for one political party or another so that the district has a clear majority of either republicans or Democrats. This process is known as gerrymandering.
Although this seems a reasonable approach this causes more of an issue of fragmentation than congressional district ting. Lastly, there is the Electoral College with super electors. This idea was introduced by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 2000. he proposed that “... candidates would continue to compete for electors on a state-by-state, winner-take-all basis, but the winner of the national popular vote would be awarded a set of bonus
We see multiple successes of voting equality attempted through amendments, however, the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder has pushed back years and years of effort for voting rights. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling was in Shelby County’s favor, stating that the Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional along with Section 5. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the power to regulate election was reserved to the states, not the federal government. As a result to the court’s decision, the federal government can no longer determine which voting law discriminates and can be passed. After the case, many states had freely passed new voting laws; the most common voting law states passed
This new change could lead to having more people interested in politics, it could also bring a bigger younger demographic of voters to vote, and it could bring a better representation of the opinions in the county. This
Have you ever asked yourself "how would the world be if there was no structure to allow people to vote for the person who is leading their country?". How about "Does my vote really count ?" or "does the opinion and choice of me, one person, really make a difference?". These questions aren't simply answered but should be seriously thought of by anybody who is a citizen of a country which has an established government and truly cares about the wellbeing and future of the country that they live in. I will be focused on the importance of voting for the president themselves is important. Individuals whom are over the age 18 and have a vailidated citisenship of the country they wish to vote on, have the opretunitiy to vote on several different ascepts of the government.
This allows the politicians to select one representative from each district to represent the majority of the voters in that district. This can benefit a political party because it allows them to have more seats in the house. “Eliminating gerrymandering would not by itself dramatically increase the competitiveness of house and state….between the two major political parties” (Mann, Thomas
It also makes political parties favored over larger areas because the candidates must get the votes of less populated states, which tend to have much more area in
The Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have trans-regional appeal. Trans-regional appeal is when a presidential candidate tries to appeal to all or more than one region. No region has enough electoral votes to elect a president. For example, “So a solid regional favorite, such as Romney was in the South, has no incentive to campaign heavily in those states, for he gains no electoral votes by increasing his popularity in states that he knows he will.” The Electoral College makes it so that presidential candidates have to campaign in more than one region to get more support.
However, the two-party system’s disadvantages outweigh these positives. At the state and local level, the two-party system has a negative effect on the government and voters, it ignores options outside of the main two parties, and is perpetuated by many
In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.