Collaborative Research on the Implementation and Effects of the Voting Rights Act

尽管1965年的《选举权法案》被誉为二战后颁布的最成功的政策性立法，但考察其影响和后果的科学工作却明显缺失。虽然有关于该法的影响的意见，以及关于在许多其他立法领域的影响和执行的文献，但大多数关于该法的最好的学术研究都是合法和合宪的，尽管这项立法的范围和重要性。除了最近一些重要的例外，到目前为止，大多数经验性工作都是轶事，或者概念化和方法成熟度相对较低。格罗夫曼博士和戴维森博士以及一组合作的调查人员试图通过开展一个系统的、多地点的项目来纠正这种情况。该设计包括该法案最初涵盖的南方腹地的七个州中的每一个，以及中西部和东北部有大量黑人和西班牙裔人口，以及西南部有大量墨西哥裔美国人、美洲原住民或黑人人口的其他州。将形成至少四个数据库：(1)已从普通选区或混合制度转变为单一选区或混合制度的所有司法管辖区的前后数据库，(2)关于持续使用普通选举的司法管辖区随机样本中少数族裔代表变化的纵向数据库，(3)确定少数族裔人口规模和选举结果的所有单一成员和广大选区的数据库，以及(4)所有当选少数族裔官员的抽样数据库，确定选举类型和司法管辖区的其他相关特征。数据将在市、县、学校董事会和州立法层面收集。为便于比较纵向分析，来自不同级别政府的数据将在县一级汇总。可以预期，这一重大努力将产生同样重大的贡献。在理论层面上，这项工作有望增加我们对投票制度的后果、法律对社会变革的影响以及实施的动力的理解。在实质性的层面上，这项研究将产生关于美国种族关系的知识，以及20世纪颁布的最重要和最深远的联邦法律之一。此外，除了这组调查人员将完成的工作外，该项目还将产生适合其他学者分析目的的大量数据库。

Although the 1965 Voting Rights Act has been hailed as perhaps the most successful piece of policy legislation enacted in the post-WWII era, scientific work examining its influence and consequences has been remarkably absent. While there are views about the Act's impact and a literature dealing with impact and implementation in a host of other legislative domains, most of the best scholarship dealing with the Act has been legal and constitutional despite the scope and importance of this piece of legislation. With some recent and important exceptions, most empirical work to date has been anecdotal or at a relatively low level of conceptualization and methodological sophistication. Drs. Grofman and Davidson along with a team of cooperating investigators seek to remedy this situation through undertaking a systematic, multi-site project. The design includes each of the seven states in the deep South originally covered by the Act and selected other states in the Midwest and Northeast with substantial black and Hispanic populations and in the Southwest with significant Mexican-American, Native American, or black populations. A minimum of four data bases will be formed: (1) a before and after data base for all jurisdictions which have shifted from at-large to a single-member district or mixed system, (2) a longitudinal data base on changes in minority representation in a random sample of jurisdictions continually using at-large elections, (3) a data base for all single-member and at-large districts identifying minority population size and electoral outcomes, and (4) a data base for a sample of all elected minority officials, identifying election type and other relevant characteristics of the jurisdiction. Data will be gathered at the city, county, school board, and state legislative level. To facilitate comparative longitudinal analysis, data from different levels of government will be aggregated at the county level. This major effort can be expected to produce equally major contributions. At a theoretical level, the work holds substantial promise of adding to our understanding of the consequences of voting systems, the impact of law on social change, and the dynamics underlying implementation. At a substantive level, this study will produce knowledge about race relations in America and one of the most important and far reaching federal laws to be enacted in the twentieth century. Further, beyond what will be accomplished by this team of investigators, the project will also yield a substantial data base appropriate for the analytic purposes of other scholars.