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，但在美国和其他几个英语民主国家之外，很少有人探讨重划选区的做法及其后果。 该项目通过组织第一次重新划分会议来纠正这一点，该会议在内容上具有广泛的可比性。 这次会议是由位于欧文的加州大学民主研究中心、联合国选举管理和费用项目以及国际选举制度基金会共同努力举办的，汇集了来自世界各地的学者和从业人员。 会议由一个委员会合办，每个团体各有一名代表，主要目的是为学者和从业员提供一个论坛，收集和交流有关比较重划选区做法及其对选举结果的潜在影响的资料。 会议提供了几个重要的理论和实践利益：1）为会议及会议期间收集的资料，为编纂一个有关重划选区做法的综合数据库，开了一个重要的头。2）会议讨论了几个重要的理论问题，包括分配不均的影响（创建人口不平等的地区），党派划分选区的可能性（建立有利于一个政党或特殊利益集团而牺牲其他群体的选区）及其对代表质量的影响，以及各种重新划分选区的做法对该国少数民族-种族、族裔、宗教和语言群体-代表性的影响。 由于重新划分选区为当权者提供了操纵选举结果的渠道，因此必须查明哪些重新划分选区的做法将有助于民主进程，哪些做法可能被用来规避代议制民主。

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.