A Conference on Redistricting in Comparative Perspective

尽管重划选区过程对民主代表制的性质很重要，但在美国和其他一些讲英语的民主国家之外，对重划选区的做法及其后果的探讨很少。本项目通过组织第一次在内容上具有广泛可比性的重划会议来纠正这一点。这次会议是加州大学欧文分校民主研究中心、联合国选举管理和成本项目（ACE）和国际选举制度基金会（IFES）共同努力的结果，汇集了来自世界各地的学者和实践者。它是由一个委员会共同组织的，每个小组都有一名代表。会议的主要目标是为学者和从业者提供一个论坛，收集和交流关于比较重新划分做法及其对选举结果的潜在影响的信息。会议提供了几个重要的理论和实践方面的好处：1)为会议和会议期间收集的信息是编制关于比较重划做法的综合数据库的重要开端。会议讨论了几个重要的理论问题，包括不公平分配的影响（创建人口不平等的地区），党派不公正划分选区的可能性（创建有利于一个政党或特殊利益集团的地区，以牺牲其他群体的利益为代价）及其对代表质量的影响，以及各种重新划分选区的做法对少数民族代表的影响-种族，民族，国内的宗教和语言团体。3)该项目还具有重要的政策意义，特别是对新兴民主国家而言。由于重新划分选区为掌权者提供了操纵选举结果的途径，因此确定重新划分选区的做法既可以支持民主进程，也可以用来规避代议制民主，这一点很重要。

Despite the importance of the redistricting process on the nature of democratic representation, redistricting practices and their consequences have been little explored outside of the United States context and that of a few other English speaking democracies. This project rectifies this by organizing the first redistricting conference that would be broadly comparative in content. The conference, a collaborative effort on the part of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine, the Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Project of the United Nations, and the International foundation for election Systems (IFES) and brings together scholars and practitioners from around the world. It is co-organized by a committee with a representative of each of these groups.The main objective of the conference is to provide academics and practitioners with a forum for collecting and exchanging information on comparative redistricting practices and their potential impact on electoral outcomes. The conference offers several significant theoretical and practical benefits:1) Information compiled for and during the conference makes an important start toward the compilation of a comprehensive database on comparative redistricting practices.2) Several important theoretical issues are addressed in the conference, including the implications of malapportionment (the creation of districts that are unequal in population), the potential for partisan gerrymandering (the creation of districts that favor one political party or special interest group at the expense of other groups) and its impact on the quality of representation, and the implications of various redistricting practices for the representation of minority - racial, ethnic, religious and linguistic - groups within the country.3) This project also has important policy implications, particularly for newly emerging democracies. Because redistricting offers those in power and avenue for manipulating the outcome of elections, it is important to identify redistricting practices that will lend support to the democratic process as well as those that may be used to circumvent representative democracy.