Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations
A well-developed body of research offers ways to measure the partisan advantages that result from legislative districting. Although useful to researchers and legal practitioners, those studies also suffer from theoretical, empirical, and legal limitations. In this essay, we review measures of partis...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2020-12-01
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| Series: | SAGE Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020981054 |
| _version_ | 1818595894715482112 |
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| author | Barry Burden Corwin Smidt |
| author_facet | Barry Burden Corwin Smidt |
| author_sort | Barry Burden |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A well-developed body of research offers ways to measure the partisan advantages that result from legislative districting. Although useful to researchers and legal practitioners, those studies also suffer from theoretical, empirical, and legal limitations. In this essay, we review measures of partisan bias and methods for both simulating election results under existing maps and simulating hypothetical maps. We start by describing the concept of partisan bias and how it has been measured. Then, we turn to new simulation methods that generate hypothetical election results or districts to judge the fairness of a map. While both kinds of evaluation are useful, we point to some unresolved questions and areas for future research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T11:23:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-09cd654666ed4429a34a4ca8a805db12 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2158-2440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T11:23:16Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SAGE Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-09cd654666ed4429a34a4ca8a805db122022-12-21T22:33:25ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402020-12-011010.1177/2158244020981054Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and SimulationsBarry Burden0Corwin Smidt1University of Wisconsin–Madison, USAMichigan State University, East Lansing, USAA well-developed body of research offers ways to measure the partisan advantages that result from legislative districting. Although useful to researchers and legal practitioners, those studies also suffer from theoretical, empirical, and legal limitations. In this essay, we review measures of partisan bias and methods for both simulating election results under existing maps and simulating hypothetical maps. We start by describing the concept of partisan bias and how it has been measured. Then, we turn to new simulation methods that generate hypothetical election results or districts to judge the fairness of a map. While both kinds of evaluation are useful, we point to some unresolved questions and areas for future research.https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020981054 |
| spellingShingle | Barry Burden Corwin Smidt Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations SAGE Open |
| title | Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations |
| title_full | Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations |
| title_short | Evaluating Legislative Districts Using Measures of Partisan Bias and Simulations |
| title_sort | evaluating legislative districts using measures of partisan bias and simulations |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020981054 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT barryburden evaluatinglegislativedistrictsusingmeasuresofpartisanbiasandsimulations AT corwinsmidt evaluatinglegislativedistrictsusingmeasuresofpartisanbiasandsimulations |