Political Geometry: Rethinking Redistricting in the Us with Math, Law, and Everything in Between

ISBN-13: 9783319691602 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022

Moon Duchin; Mira Bernstein; Ari Nieh

Opis

Even though gerrymandering stretches US voting districts into absurd geometric complexity, this book shows how the guiding principles of sound mathematics can still be used to measure and demonstrate how unfairly partisan they have become.

Spis treści

Duchin, M., Introduction. Duchin, M., Walch, O., Explainer: Compactness by the Numbers.- Part I: Political Thought.- Bernstein, M., Walch, O., Measuring Partisan Fairness.- Duchin, M., Walch, O., Concepts of Representation.- Gaddie, K., Redistricting: Math, Systems, or People?.- Rodden, J., Weighill, T., Political Geography and Representation.- Part II: Law.- Gordon, A., Duchin, M., Walch, O., Explainer: A Brief Introduction to the VRA.- Katz., E., Race and Redistricting.- Steingart, A., Law, Computing, and Redistricting in the 1960s.- Charles, G.-U., Spencer, D., The Law of Gerrymandering.- Part III: Geography.- Fowler, C., Race, Space, and the Geography of Representation.- Nelson, G., The Elusive Geography of Communities.- Rosenfeld, H., Duchin, M., Walch, O., Explainer: Communities of Interest.- Hachadoorian, L., Buck, R., Geography as Data.- Rosenfeld, H., Duchin, M., Walch, O., A Census Case Study: Philadelphia's Seventh Ward.- Part IV: Math and Computer Science.- Guth, L., Nieh, A., Weighill, T., Three Applications of Entropy.- Duchin, M., Murphy, J., Explainer: Measuring Clustering and Segregation.- Becker, A., Solomon, J., Redistricting Algorithms.- Deford, D., Duchin, M., Random Walks.- Gall, M., Mac Donald, K., McBride, F., Making Maps.- Duchin, M., Walch, O., Drawing for the Courts.- Weighill, T. Duchin, M., Walch, O., Explainer: Ranked Choice Voting.- Espinoza-Madrigal, I., Sellstrom, O., Case Study: Lowell, MA.- Clarke, K., Gordon, A., The State of Play in Voting Rights.

Blurb

“Why does my congressional district look like a salamander?” Politically engaged citizens have been asking this question for far too long. This volume collects perspectives from a wide cross-section of disciplines to explain what drives gerrymandering, why it can be hard to stamp out, and how we might go about fixing it. With topics ranging from the Voting Rights Act to Markov chains to the geography of communities, this book serves as a 21st century toolkit for how we can better approach this corrosive phenomenon.

The volume editors gather experts from a variety of fields to provide as many different perspectives on gerrymandering as possible. Thanks to the breadth of expertise found across these chapters, ranging from lawyers to mathematicians to civil rights activists, readers will discover new ways of thinking about redistricting in the United States. Illustrations and helpful walkthroughs appear throughout to clearly explain otherwise complex ideas from these areas. Political Geometry is a must-have for anybody interested in political representation in the United States elections, and for anyone who’s ever thought, “There must be a better way to do this.”