, straggling runner which appears to follow local arterials and a regional Interstate highway, and may well in places be not much wider than that highway. It is hard for the observer not to want to conclude that the population in the middle was excluded from this district for one partisan reason or another.
Is It Possible to Kill the Gerrymander?
Whether or not one thinks gerrymandering has a deleterious effect to public policy making in the USA most likely depends on what side one is on. To a Democrat, a permanent Democratic majority might be worth whatever drawbacks that it may bring, and gerrymandering to the aim of ensconcing percieved advantages has the potential of making those alignments real.
A fair number of proposals have been advanced in order to remove the power of the gerrymander. There are technical aspects, such as establishing fixed districts or using more objective criteria, such as rigid rules on the “compactness”â€“or tendency to have districts that do not have outliersâ€“of districts.
In as much as the party in power strives to remain in power, however, most schemes ought at least to excise the partisan tendency of the majority party to have the driver seat.
- Wikipedia entry on Gerrymandering: goes into great detail on methods of gerrymandering
- Drawing the Line, Mark Monmonier, Henry Holt pub, 1996, pp 196-201