Redistricting Commissions in the Western United States
Redistricting Commissions in the Western United States
复制标题
美国西部选区重划委员会
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
B. Grofman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Peter Miller;B. Grofman
在美国，国会和州一级的选区重划主要由州立法机构完成，通常受到州长的否决。然而，一些州--特别是在西部--使用一个委员会来划分新的国会或立法选区。这些重新划分选区的委员会采取各种机构形式，以它们被授权遵循的重新划分选区的标准为指导。我们确定了2011-2012年重新划分选区周期中西部各州使用的制度安排，并简要考虑了这些州在不同类型重新划分选区过程中公众投入的性质，并指出该州是否能够及时就国会计划达成协议，该计划随后未被法庭推翻。然后，我们比较了从1992年到2012年由州立法机构、委员会和法院划分的西部各州的国会选区，重点放在三个标准上：政治分区的完整性、选区的紧凑性和选区的竞争力。我们发现只有非常有限的证据表明，总的来说，委员会比立法机构更有能力创造出紧凑、有竞争力的选区，尊重各州和地方的边界，我们发现各州和不同类型的委员会在满足良好政府标准的程度上存在很大差异。
Congressional and state-level redistricting in the United States is predominately done by state legislatures, usually subject to a gubernatorial veto. However, some states—especially in the West—use a commission to draw new congressional or legislative districts. These redistricting commissions, which take a variety of institutional forms, are guided by redistricting criteria that they are mandated to follow. We identify the institutional arrangements used in the western states during the 2011– 2012 redistricting cycles and briefly consider the nature of public input in these states across types of redistricting processes, and we indicate whether or not the state was able reach a timely agreement on a congressional plan that was not subsequently overturned in court. We then compare congressional districts in the western states drawn by state legislatures, commissions, and the courts from 1992 to 2012, with a focus on three criteria: the integrity of political subdivisions, the compactness of the districts, and the competitiveness of the districts. We find only very limited evidence that commissions, on balance, are better able than legislatures to produce compact, competitive districts that respect the boundaries of counties and places in the states, and we find considerable variance across states and across types of commissions in the degree to which good government criteria are satisfied.