Reconsidering racial and partisan gerrymandering /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Cox, Adam, author.
Imprint:	[Chicago, Illinois] : Law School, University of Chicago, 2011.
Description:	1 online resource (56 pages)
Language:	English
Series:	John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper ; no. 554 (2d series) Public law and legal theory working paper ; no. 350 John M. Olin Program in Law & Economics working paper ; 2nd ser., no. 554. Public law and legal theory working paper ; no. 350.
Subject:	United States. -- Voting Rights Act of 1965. Voting Rights Act of 1965 (United States) Gerrymandering -- United States. Apportionment (Election law) -- United States. African Americans -- Politics and government. Hispanic Americans -- Politics and government. African Americans -- Politics and government. Apportionment (Election law) Gerrymandering. Hispanic Americans -- Politics and government. United States.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8958062
Related Items:	Contained in (work): University of Chicago law review

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Holden, Richard T., 1974- author.
Notes:	"May 2011." Article reprinted from: University of Chicago law review, Volume 78, issue 2 (Spring 2011), pages 553-604. Includes bibliographical references. Title from online title page (viewed January 25, 2013).
Summary:	"In recent years, scholars have come to a general agreement about the relationship between partisan gerrymandering and racial redistricting. Drawing districts that contain a majority of minority voters, as is often required by the Voting Rights Act, is said to help minority voters in those districts but hurt the Democratic Party more broadly. This Article argues that this familiar claim is based on a mistaken assumption about how redistricters can best manipulate districts for partisan gain - an assumption grounded in the idea that all voters can be thought of as either Democrats or Republicans. Relaxing this assumption, and acknowledging that voters come in diverse ideological types, we highlight the fact that the optimal partisan gerrymandering strategy is quite different from the pack-and-crack strategy that is pervasive in the literature. Understanding this optimal strategy leads to a second insight - that the Voting Rights Act constrains Republicans' partisan ambitions, not Democrats', as is typically thought. We conclude by discussing some implications for the future of the Voting Rights Act and the next round of decennial redistricting."

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