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.
The differentiators that account for the variation are the parties and Congress. Meinke then deduces from the information that the majority party in Congress exhibits a significant substantial number of members that advertise their partisan activity — “…majority party status—and possibly the strength of the party brand name—is associated with the choice.” (Meinke 860) Meinke also discovers that the stronger the partisan base (measured by same-party presidential vote), there is a more
Some changes in party polarization in Congress over the last several decades are the party division between Republicans and Democrats as having widened over the last several decades, leading to greater partisanship. What caused this change was increasing homogeneous districts and increasing alignment between ideology and partisanship among voters. I feel this can be good because the original congress was just one and if you did not agree with this opinion you could not do anything about it. Now at least you can fall under a category which is Republican or Democrat. In fact, I believe there should be more than just two parties because I know most people like some of the ideologies from Democrats (such as being more liberal) but they also like
The conflict of on party receiving more representation turnout for racial gerrymandering has introduce opposing views to this system. Due to a common focus on racial diversity and representation there has been an increase in programs to solve this issue. Racial gerrymandering tries to repair certain issues although it promotes a single party with unequal representation.
Given the legal nature of the gerrymandering issue, there is an extensive legal background on the issue since the ninetieth century. This literature review gives the more relevant legal background regarding Pennsylvania’s current situation, as well as background information on the novel ways that policy-makers and researchers measure political gerrymandering. Keeping the legal background and measurement procedures in context, there are also legislative reforms and commission procedures that states have taken in order to ameliorate the problems that arise from gerrymandering. A. Constitutionality & Legal Background The Pennsylvania State Constitution contains relevant clauses that must be applied to any redistricting plan.
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
Gerrymandering is defined as, the manipulation of the boundaries, of an electoral constituency, in order to favor one political party. Gerrymandering is used when it is time to re-draw voting boundaries, in a process known as redistricting, and the party in power wants to maintain power, so they draw the new boundaries in weird, elongated shapes. Gerrymandering has been implemented all over Texas. Gerrymandering is usually practiced in three distinct forms: Wasted Vote, Excess Vote, and Stacked Vote. Wasted vote is used when the party in power, or in charge of the redistricting process has a higher support.
Gerrymandering Gerrymandering is the redrawing of political boundaries, otherwise known as district lines, in a state to give one party a numeric advantage over the opposing party. This is done by dividing districts up into highly irregular sections to achieve the goal of having voters from a particular party highly concentrated in some areas and thinly scattered in other areas (Donnelly, Fortune). Gerrymandering has been criticized because it violates the two basic principles in electoral designation; compactness and equality of size of constituencies in electoral designation (The Editors, Britannica). There is currently no law against the process of Gerrymandering. However, the current Supreme Court case Gill v. Whitford could change that.
The Dark Side of Gerrymandering Gerrymandering has been around ever since the forefathers of America first started the nations democratic voting system. Gerrymandering is the redistribution of electoral district lines in order to give the redistributors an unfair political advantage (Elliot). While it is technically a legal practice, it allows the political parties in office to find a way to gain political advantages by separating minorities and voters of opposing political parties. The social inequalities and federal dishonesty associated with gerrymandering must be addressed and regulated as it poses a real problem for Americans as their votes are having less and less of an impact on elections. There are two common types of gerrymandering
In the article Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, Morris Fiorina addresses the issue of the illusion of political polarization. Political polarization is the separation of political beliefs into two separate extremes. The main illustration Fiorina uses is the use the electoral map. The electoral map is used to gauge which party won an election or polling.
There are a number of differences in the demographics between the ones that are and are not politically involved. Older people tend to vote more than the younger people by their concern toward the government, as well as the number of white Americans voting more than the other minority races would. The educated will vote more than the uneducated by having more knowledge of the election, along with families with higher income of over $65,000 having time to vote than the low income ones of $35,000 or under. The ones who shows party identification would want to get involved in politics, whereas independent individual would not care as much. People who grew up with specific ideology would want to have a say in politics, in contrast to those who did not.
To Gerrymander something is to manipulate the boundaries of a district to favor one party or class. The information used to choose how to manipulate districts is by census data which means district lines are usually redrawn every 10 years. Is gerrymandering a fair practice? Political parties that are currently in power would say that it is fair because gerrymandering the district lines that are drawn are reviewed by a judge and then made into districts that way. So that means it follows the proper system to do so.
Is Gerrymandering a Controversial Topic? Gerrymandering is a process where the ruling political party uses the map of their state to draw lines that create voting districts in favor of their party. The result of this is that it doesn’t reflect the voters political views. For about 200 years the government has used gerrymandering during political elections and it continues to be used today (King, Elizabeth) .
Gerrymandering is a term most often known for its use in politics. Many people have heard of the term but do not know what it is, or they know what it and how it works. Just to clarify, Gerrymandering is when the leading political group obtains then right to redraw district lines after reapportionment to gain advantages in an election. Gerrymandering is rapidly growing in popularity across the continental United States. It is allowing politicians to cheat their way into an office with little to no effort.
Finally, it will be argued that the modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These two parties have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and have controlled the United States Congress since 1856. The Democratic Party generally positions itself as centre-left in American politics and supports a modern American liberal platform, while the Republican Party generally positions itself as centre-right and supports a modern American conservative platform. (Nichols, 1967)
