Competing Criteria: Rethinking Congressional Redistricting and Representation

Key Question Being Explored in This Insight:

How do the choices made during congressional redistricting shape group representation, and what do six decades of data reveal about the influence of different institutions?

View the page of: Sam D Hayes

Institution: Trinity College

Explore more insights in:

American Politics Political Science Social Sciences

Media Literacy Toolkit

Faculti's Media Literacy Toolkit helps viewers critically engage with academic insights by analyzing the research context, identifying perspectives, and encouraging thoughtful evaluation.

Critical Questions to Consider ▼

What assumptions does the research make?
Are there alternative perspectives not explored?
What are the limitations of the research method?

Bias and Perspective Awareness ▼

This research comes from Trinity College . Reflect on how the institution's academic focus and research partnerships may shape the questions being explored.

Further Reading ▼

Read the Study

How do the choices made during congressional redistricting shape group representation, and what do six decades of data reveal about the influence of different institutions?

Image courtesy of interviewee. November 7, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

This video discusses the process of congressional redistricting in the United States, which occurs every ten years following the census. It highlights that states have considerable flexibility in how they draw district lines, leading to various criteria influencing these decisions, such as compactness, maintaining political subdivision boundaries, and partisan advantage.

However, different redistricting institutions (e.g., legislatures, commissions, courts) often prioritize conflicting criteria, resulting in varying outcomes for representation based on the criteria selected. The paper examines how different institutions correlate with particular redistricting criteria and the implications of these choices for voter representation and political power.

It emphasizes that redistricting can significantly affect which groups gain representation and influence within legislatures, posing broader questions about democracy. Ultimately, the research indicates that there is no truly fair or neutral criterion for redistricting, as the selection of criteria inherently excludes others. The findings suggest potential avenues for reform, advocating for alignment between the goals of redistricting institutions and the preferences of constituents, especially regarding geographic versus partisan identities. Future research could further explore the incentives and constraints faced by these institutions and their impact on redistricting practices.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are five key points from the video regarding the redistricting process in the United States:

1. **Redistricting Criteria and Political Goals**: Every ten years, states redraw congressional districts based on various criteria that often serve political goals, such as partisan advantage or maintaining town/county boundaries. These criteria dictate how communities and voters are grouped, potentially favoring certain political identities over others.

2. **Conflict of Criteria**: The selection of one redistricting criterion often excludes others, leading to conflicts. For instance, prioritizing compactness may limit the ability to achieve partisan objectives, illustrating that no set of criteria can address all community needs simultaneously.

3. **Impact of Institutions on Redistricting**: Different redistricting institutions (such as legislatures, independent commissions, and courts) correlate with different sets of criteria. For example, state courts tend to prioritize traditional criteria like compactness, while partisan legislatures may emphasize party advantage, reflecting their varying incentives and design.

4. **Consequences for Representation**: The ways in which districts are drawn have significant implications for political representation. If the criteria chosen by lawmakers do not align with how constituents identify or want to be represented, it raises concerns about the legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic processes.

5. **Call for Reform**: The video advocates for a closer examination of what constituents desire in terms of representation and suggests that reforms should aim to align redistricting practices with these preferences. This could involve assessing the criteria used and potentially identifying gaps where reforms can ensure fairer representation that reflects the community's geographic or social identities.

Export as PDF
Here are some key quotes and concepts extracted from the video regarding redistricting, its criteria, and the implications for representation and democracy:

1. **Infinite Possibilities of Districting**:
- “theoretically, you could have infinite possibilities for how these districts are drawn.”

2. **Criteria for Redistricting**:
- “the criteria are usually something like compactness or maintaining town or county political subdivision boundaries. It can be something else like partisan advantage, right?”

3. **Political Goals in Redistricting**:
- “these criteria are almost always essentially political goals of the people who are in charge of drawing these maps.”

4. **Conflict Among Criteria**:
- “some of these criteria are at the exclusion of other criteria… you have to prioritize certain criteria at the exclusion of others.”

5. **Different Institutions and Group Representation**:
- “when different institutions are in charge of the redistricting process, they correlate with other criteria... favoring one group of constituents, one identity for the constituents over another.”

6. **Gaps in Research**:
- “none of that research really speaks to this question... this project fills a gap in the scholarship.”

7. **Comprehensive Data Collection**:
- “I wanted to get as much data about as many of the redistricting institutions as I could… I approached as comprehensive as I could with the data available.”

8. **Redistricting Process**:
- “the redistricting institution has the opportunity to choose from infinite numbers of criteria, but they only choose some at the exclusion of others.”

9. **Correlations and Findings**:
- “what I ended up finding was that the redistricting criteria do conflict... each institution only correlates with one or a small number of criteria.”

10. **Differences Between Institutions**:
- “there are also differences... between the institutional design and purpose of a legislature or a court or a commission.”

11. **Redistricting and Political Power**:
- “redistricting is essentially a process where political elites are grouping people... based on their own elite goals and criteria.”

12. **Implications for Democracy**:
- “this becomes major questions... at the heart of representation, democracy, and political processes.”

13. **The Illusion of Fairness**:
- “there is no such thing as fair... there is no possibility for fair and neutral criteria.”

14. **Call for Reforms**:
- “the biggest possibility for reform here would be to look more closely at what do the people actually want...”

These quotes highlight the complexities and implications of the redistricting process, emphasizing the interplay between political goals, criteria conflicts, and the representation of constituents' identities.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:90000

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.885
Every 10 years in the United States,

2
00:00:02.015 --> 00:00:05.565
every state is required to redraw their congressional,

3
00:00:05.945 --> 00:00:07.445
districts.

4
00:00:08.105 --> 00:00:11.645
And theoretically, you could have infinite possibilities for

5
00:00:11.645 --> 00:00:12.645
how these districts are drawn.

6
00:00:12.825 --> 00:00:15.485
So with a, a state like Maine, for example,

7
00:00:15.485 --> 00:00:18.285
where there's only two districts, you only have

8
00:00:18.285 --> 00:00:21.565
to draw one line, but you could draw that one line

9
00:00:22.135 --> 00:00:24.045
infinitely cutting up the population

10
00:00:24.045 --> 00:00:27.365
of the state into two groups, based on anything.

11
00:00:27.825 --> 00:00:31.325
So in order to, actually complete this task,

12
00:00:31.325 --> 00:00:33.565
because there are so many possibilities, you have

13
00:00:33.565 --> 00:00:37.965
to choose some sort of, guiding criteria, right?

14
00:00:38.025 --> 00:00:41.405
And so in reality, these criteria are usually,

15
00:00:41.405 --> 00:00:44.365
something like compactness or maintaining town

16
00:00:44.385 --> 00:00:46.405
or county political subdivision boundaries.

17
00:00:46.505 --> 00:00:48.765
It can be something else like partisan advantage, right?

18
00:00:48.765 --> 00:00:50.605
Helping Democrats or Republicans win.

19
00:00:51.185 --> 00:00:53.165
Um, and so in reality,

20
00:00:53.165 --> 00:00:56.285
these criteria are almost always essentially,

21
00:00:56.675 --> 00:01:00.205
political goals, of the people who are in charge

22
00:01:00.305 --> 00:01:01.765
of drawing these maps.

23
00:01:02.345 --> 00:01:06.775
Um, so in order to use one

24
00:01:06.775 --> 00:01:09.975
of these criteria, right, whether it's protecting town

25
00:01:09.975 --> 00:01:10.975
or county boundaries or,

26
00:01:11.115 --> 00:01:14.095
or partisan advantage, it requires people,

27
00:01:14.995 --> 00:01:17.455
it requires the people who are in charge of redistricting

28
00:01:18.115 --> 00:01:19.375
to conceive of the people

29
00:01:19.395 --> 00:01:23.095
who will be living in those districts by a specific group

30
00:01:23.855 --> 00:01:24.855
category, right?

31
00:01:25.075 --> 00:01:27.655
So with partisan advantage, you have to conceive

32
00:01:27.655 --> 00:01:30.415
of everybody living in that map as partisans, right?

33
00:01:30.415 --> 00:01:31.455
By their partisan identity.

34
00:01:31.875 --> 00:01:33.735
If it's, town

35
00:01:33.955 --> 00:01:37.895
or county, protection, then you're thinking of everybody

36
00:01:38.435 --> 00:01:41.255
in terms of their geographic identity, right?

37
00:01:42.185 --> 00:01:43.605
And so,

38
00:01:43.955 --> 00:01:46.005
therefore we have these kind of different criteria.

39
00:01:46.745 --> 00:01:48.245
Uh, you're grouping constituents

40
00:01:48.265 --> 00:01:50.365
and voters based on these externally

41
00:01:51.405 --> 00:01:53.045
imposed group categories.

42
00:01:53.705 --> 00:01:56.325
Um, and then this is where the, the kind

43
00:01:56.325 --> 00:01:59.725
of major wrinkle comes in that's critical for this,

44
00:01:59.995 --> 00:02:03.525
this research project, is that you can't choose all

45
00:02:03.525 --> 00:02:04.885
of the criteria, right?

46
00:02:04.905 --> 00:02:07.285
So some of these criteria are at the

47
00:02:07.285 --> 00:02:08.525
exclusion of other criteria.

48
00:02:09.105 --> 00:02:11.285
Uh, and so this is the competing criteria

49
00:02:11.585 --> 00:02:14.405
or conflicting criteria from the, from the title.

50
00:02:14.505 --> 00:02:17.085
So, because these criteria conflict with one another,

51
00:02:17.585 --> 00:02:19.525
you have to prioritize certain criteria

52
00:02:19.705 --> 00:02:20.725
at the exclusion of others.

53
00:02:20.745 --> 00:02:24.045
So, for example, if you prioritize compactness,

54
00:02:24.535 --> 00:02:27.525
maybe you aren't gonna be able to achieve goals of pars

55
00:02:27.525 --> 00:02:29.885
and advantage, or vice versa, right?

56
00:02:30.505 --> 00:02:33.445
So this paper really tries to put all these ideas together

57
00:02:33.505 --> 00:02:36.605
and show that when different institutions are in charge

58
00:02:36.705 --> 00:02:39.125
of the redistricting process, they correlate

59
00:02:39.125 --> 00:02:41.885
with different criteria, act the exclusion

60
00:02:41.885 --> 00:02:42.885
of other criteria.

61
00:02:43.665 --> 00:02:46.485
Uh, and the implications of this are

62
00:02:46.485 --> 00:02:48.245
that when you're favoring one category

63
00:02:48.365 --> 00:02:51.045
of group representation over the other,

64
00:02:51.355 --> 00:02:55.125
then you're doing, so, you're also favoring,

65
00:02:55.225 --> 00:02:57.405
one group of constituents, one identity

66
00:02:57.465 --> 00:02:59.045
for the constituents over another.

67
00:02:59.345 --> 00:03:02.005
So, for example, when you have a Democratic

68
00:03:02.105 --> 00:03:04.405
or Republican legislature, right,

69
00:03:04.705 --> 00:03:09.365
you are grouping people based on their party, group,

70
00:03:09.455 --> 00:03:12.845
their party identification, their party identity in terms

71
00:03:12.845 --> 00:03:16.205
of, kind of scholarship.

72
00:03:16.755 --> 00:03:18.645
There's been a lot of re research on

73
00:03:18.885 --> 00:03:19.965
redistricting and representation.

74
00:03:20.745 --> 00:03:23.005
Um, it makes sense. They go together.

75
00:03:23.305 --> 00:03:26.325
One, the purpose of redistricting is tied to representation.

76
00:03:27.105 --> 00:03:29.085
Uh, but none of that research really speaks

77
00:03:29.085 --> 00:03:31.765
to this question, or is kind of,

78
00:03:32.155 --> 00:03:35.765
most research on redistricting representation isn't kind of

79
00:03:35.845 --> 00:03:37.325
as broad as this project.

80
00:03:38.525 --> 00:03:41.465
So this project fills, a gap in the scholarship

81
00:03:41.525 --> 00:03:46.465
by essentially leveraging these empirical, metrics

82
00:03:46.885 --> 00:03:48.105
and, papers

83
00:03:48.695 --> 00:03:51.425
that people have done on specific criteria and specific groups.

84
00:03:52.165 --> 00:03:55.225
And then bringing in these more theoretical ideas about

85
00:03:55.225 --> 00:03:57.665
competing and conflicting criteria,

86
00:03:57.695 --> 00:03:59.385
from scholars like Bruce Kane,

87
00:04:00.085 --> 00:04:02.985
and kind of putting that all together in order to lead

88
00:04:02.985 --> 00:04:05.505
to these new conclusions, I wanted to take an approach

89
00:04:05.655 --> 00:04:07.585
that would be as comprehensive as possible.

90
00:04:07.605 --> 00:04:09.945
So I wanted to get as much data about as many

91
00:04:09.945 --> 00:04:12.905
of the redistricting institutions as I could, as well as,

92
00:04:12.965 --> 00:04:15.905
as many of the redistricting criteria as I could.

93
00:04:16.335 --> 00:04:19.425
Many studies are kind of focused on, one set

94
00:04:19.425 --> 00:04:21.225
of criteria, something like compactness.

95
00:04:21.525 --> 00:04:22.665
How does compactness vary

96
00:04:22.675 --> 00:04:24.105
among these different institutions?

97
00:04:24.605 --> 00:04:27.505
Uh, what I was really interested in is when I look at all

98
00:04:27.505 --> 00:04:30.265
of the different institutions that are active,

99
00:04:30.265 --> 00:04:33.985
how do they compare on every single criteria, right?

100
00:04:34.685 --> 00:04:36.545
So, first I kind

101
00:04:36.545 --> 00:04:38.665
of considered all the different redistricting institutions

102
00:04:38.665 --> 00:04:40.865
that are active in redistricting

103
00:04:40.865 --> 00:04:43.185
that have the responsibility of actually drawing those maps.

104
00:04:43.525 --> 00:04:46.225
And those would be legislatures, commissions, courts.

105
00:04:46.485 --> 00:04:49.905
Uh, and then I grouped those into subcategories of either

106
00:04:50.465 --> 00:04:53.425
partisan legislatures, Republican or democratic non-par

107
00:04:53.425 --> 00:04:56.465
or bipartisan legislatures, where they're split control,

108
00:04:56.735 --> 00:04:58.825
independent commissions, political commissions,

109
00:04:59.005 --> 00:05:00.785
and then state courts and federal courts.

110
00:05:01.485 --> 00:05:03.425
And then the second set of things, data

111
00:05:03.425 --> 00:05:05.865
that I needed was the redistricting criteria.

112
00:05:06.645 --> 00:05:08.785
Uh, and so I grouped those into four categories.

113
00:05:08.865 --> 00:05:12.785
There's partisan criteria, political criteria,

114
00:05:13.545 --> 00:05:16.185
minority representation criteria and traditional criteria.

115
00:05:16.805 --> 00:05:18.305
And this is where I was able to bring in

116
00:05:18.325 --> 00:05:19.825
and kind of build on the work that a lot

117
00:05:19.825 --> 00:05:21.385
of other scholars did,

118
00:05:21.525 --> 00:05:22.905
in developing these different metrics

119
00:05:23.005 --> 00:05:25.585
for measuring things like, compactness

120
00:05:25.805 --> 00:05:28.625
or, partisan advantage,

121
00:05:28.725 --> 00:05:30.025
and bring in my own measurements

122
00:05:30.025 --> 00:05:31.505
for things like minority representation.

123
00:05:33.095 --> 00:05:35.275
And so your research distinguishes itself

124
00:05:35.435 --> 00:05:37.435
'cause it's comprehensive, whereas they were just sort

125
00:05:37.435 --> 00:05:39.355
of se little tiny compartmentalized,

126
00:05:40.505 --> 00:05:41.505
Right? Exactly.

127
00:05:41.505 --> 00:05:45.775
Uh, my research was trying to be, it was trying

128
00:05:45.975 --> 00:05:49.605
to copy my, my, this project is trying

129
00:05:49.605 --> 00:05:52.005
to approximate the process of redistricting itself,

130
00:05:52.375 --> 00:05:55.125
where the redistricting institution has the opportunity

131
00:05:55.865 --> 00:06:00.345
to choose from infinite numbers of criteria,

132
00:06:00.485 --> 00:06:02.945
but they only choose some at the exclusion of others.

133
00:06:03.445 --> 00:06:05.065
So in order to do that, I needed a,

134
00:06:05.225 --> 00:06:07.225
a fairly comprehensive set of criteria.

135
00:06:07.845 --> 00:06:09.465
Um, there's possibility

136
00:06:09.485 --> 00:06:11.145
for a more comprehensive set in the future,

137
00:06:11.205 --> 00:06:13.945
but I, I approached as comprehensive as I could

138
00:06:13.945 --> 00:06:14.985
with the data available.

139
00:06:15.925 --> 00:06:17.385
Uh, and I ended up collecting data

140
00:06:17.525 --> 00:06:19.265
for six redistricting cycles.

141
00:06:19.285 --> 00:06:21.385
So redistricting takes place

142
00:06:21.435 --> 00:06:24.985
after the census has taken place in years that ended zero

143
00:06:25.485 --> 00:06:27.905
and prior to, elections that,

144
00:06:27.905 --> 00:06:28.985
in years that ended two.

145
00:06:29.285 --> 00:06:33.545
So I collected data for 19 72, 19 82, 19 92,

146
00:06:33.565 --> 00:06:37.105
2002, 2012, and 2022 for the analysis.

147
00:06:37.105 --> 00:06:40.265
What I did was, I used a bunch of,

148
00:06:40.265 --> 00:06:43.905
regression analyses to look at the correlations between

149
00:06:44.545 --> 00:06:48.225
redistricting institutions and these different criteria,

150
00:06:48.485 --> 00:06:50.865
and the, well kind

151
00:06:50.865 --> 00:06:53.305
of incorporating all the relevant control variables.

152
00:06:53.805 --> 00:06:55.625
But the idea was to identify

153
00:06:55.625 --> 00:06:56.825
where are there strong relationships

154
00:06:56.825 --> 00:06:59.905
between certain institutions and certain criteria.

155
00:07:00.605 --> 00:07:02.225
Uh, and what I ended up finding was

156
00:07:02.225 --> 00:07:05.545
that the redistricting criteria do conflict, right?

157
00:07:05.645 --> 00:07:09.265
You have each institution only correlates with a, with one

158
00:07:09.285 --> 00:07:12.665
or a small number of criteria, while there are kind

159
00:07:12.665 --> 00:07:13.665
of negative associations

160
00:07:13.685 --> 00:07:16.865
or no relationships, with many of the other criteria.

161
00:07:17.445 --> 00:07:21.765
So I'm able to kind of take those conclusions,

162
00:07:21.765 --> 00:07:25.125
those findings, and then draw conclusions from those,

163
00:07:25.255 --> 00:07:27.765
about how these institutions may be,

164
00:07:28.205 --> 00:07:30.805
categorizing constituents and voters.

165
00:07:31.065 --> 00:07:33.605
For example, when a state court draws a redistricting map,

166
00:07:33.995 --> 00:07:35.005
they correlate highly

167
00:07:35.035 --> 00:07:37.245
with traditional criteria such as compactness.

168
00:07:37.665 --> 00:07:41.245
Uh, and this requires treating constituents based on their

169
00:07:41.245 --> 00:07:44.805
geographic identity at the exclusion of other criteria,

170
00:07:44.855 --> 00:07:48.085
which could mean treating them with bipartisan

171
00:07:48.545 --> 00:07:50.125
or, minority identity.

172
00:07:50.125 --> 00:07:52.845
Instead, there are some important distinctions

173
00:07:53.965 --> 00:07:57.215
between these redistricting institutions that I look at,

174
00:07:57.475 --> 00:07:59.735
beyond just the, the criteria

175
00:07:59.735 --> 00:08:01.135
that they correlate with, right?

176
00:08:01.475 --> 00:08:02.695
So even though my findings show

177
00:08:02.695 --> 00:08:05.335
that there are differences in terms of the criteria

178
00:08:05.335 --> 00:08:07.655
that they're correlating with, there are also differences,

179
00:08:08.235 --> 00:08:11.655
major differences between the institutional design

180
00:08:11.675 --> 00:08:14.855
and purpose of a legislature or a court or a commission.

181
00:08:15.435 --> 00:08:17.575
Uh, so I, I think one of the things

182
00:08:17.575 --> 00:08:20.135
that really jumps out here is, state

183
00:08:20.135 --> 00:08:21.655
and federal courts kind

184
00:08:21.655 --> 00:08:24.495
of operate fundamentally differently in the redistricting

185
00:08:24.585 --> 00:08:27.695
realm than legislatures or commissions, right?

186
00:08:27.715 --> 00:08:31.175
So a, a commission may be designed explicitly

187
00:08:31.235 --> 00:08:34.775
for the creation of redistricting, right?

188
00:08:34.875 --> 00:08:36.215
The commission, their job,

189
00:08:36.385 --> 00:08:38.775
their sole purpose is congressional redistricting.

190
00:08:39.315 --> 00:08:41.575
Uh, a legislature has many different responsibilities,

191
00:08:41.575 --> 00:08:45.295
but they may be constitutionally, bound

192
00:08:45.355 --> 00:08:46.535
to do the redistricting process.

193
00:08:46.865 --> 00:08:48.935
State and federal courts will only get involved

194
00:08:49.025 --> 00:08:51.615
after those initial procedures fail, right?

195
00:08:51.615 --> 00:08:53.655
Something has to go wrong for the courts to get involved.

196
00:08:54.235 --> 00:08:57.365
And then other differences between these institutions are

197
00:08:58.315 --> 00:09:00.285
they face different constraints, right?

198
00:09:00.315 --> 00:09:01.885
Legislators have to get reelected.

199
00:09:02.345 --> 00:09:04.765
Uh, federal judges are appointed for life.

200
00:09:05.185 --> 00:09:06.325
Uh, they have different incentives,

201
00:09:06.945 --> 00:09:08.485
and likely they have different goals.

202
00:09:09.225 --> 00:09:11.565
So the data from my paper shows that

203
00:09:12.095 --> 00:09:14.085
these institutions make different maps.

204
00:09:14.235 --> 00:09:15.685
They correlate with different criteria.

205
00:09:16.425 --> 00:09:20.005
Uh, and really this is, the kind of next step

206
00:09:20.585 --> 00:09:23.805
for future research is that this is ripe for,

207
00:09:23.865 --> 00:09:25.285
for causal inference, right?

208
00:09:25.345 --> 00:09:27.245
How do these insti, how do these constraints

209
00:09:27.245 --> 00:09:30.765
and incentives for the different institutions,

210
00:09:31.415 --> 00:09:33.325
cause them to choose certain criteria?

211
00:09:33.865 --> 00:09:37.405
And maybe even also interestingly, are some

212
00:09:37.405 --> 00:09:38.605
of these criteria being chosen,

213
00:09:39.505 --> 00:09:41.165
accidentally or incidentally?

214
00:09:41.305 --> 00:09:43.285
And they are unaware of that, right?

215
00:09:43.385 --> 00:09:46.765
So they're, the kind of thinking about this in terms

216
00:09:46.765 --> 00:09:49.485
of partisan legislatures is pretty well known, right?

217
00:09:49.925 --> 00:09:54.405
Partisan, people who are associated with a party

218
00:09:54.405 --> 00:09:56.045
who have to run for reelection probably

219
00:09:56.045 --> 00:09:57.325
have partisan incentives.

220
00:09:57.985 --> 00:10:01.965
Uh, but for courts, for commissions, that's kind of ripe

221
00:10:01.965 --> 00:10:04.245
for more, research.

222
00:10:04.305 --> 00:10:06.285
And also the, one of the things, one

223
00:10:06.285 --> 00:10:09.765
of the key findings from this paper is that federal

224
00:10:09.865 --> 00:10:12.205
and state courts are often grouped together in a lot

225
00:10:12.205 --> 00:10:13.365
of this research, and they're

226
00:10:13.365 --> 00:10:14.445
treated as if they're the same.

227
00:10:14.985 --> 00:10:16.725
Uh, and these findings show that state

228
00:10:16.725 --> 00:10:18.805
and federal courts are making different maps.

229
00:10:19.035 --> 00:10:22.285
They are likely valuing different, aspects

230
00:10:22.285 --> 00:10:23.885
of law when they are drawing these maps.

231
00:10:24.025 --> 00:10:27.885
The broader implications from this, from the study is,

232
00:10:28.025 --> 00:10:31.255
is, if we think about it in a really abstract sense,

233
00:10:31.775 --> 00:10:34.935
redistricting is sometimes it's called, you know,

234
00:10:34.935 --> 00:10:36.615
politicians are choosing their voters.

235
00:10:36.795 --> 00:10:39.015
But I, I think we can think of it even more abstractly, that

236
00:10:39.535 --> 00:10:41.795
redistricting is essentially a process

237
00:10:41.795 --> 00:10:45.675
where political elites are grouping people, constituents

238
00:10:45.855 --> 00:10:49.835
and voters, the people, based on their own elite goals

239
00:10:49.855 --> 00:10:51.575
and criteria, right?

240
00:10:51.675 --> 00:10:55.255
So this has direct consequences for, which groups

241
00:10:55.875 --> 00:10:57.935
are represented and have political power,

242
00:10:57.935 --> 00:11:01.055
voting power in legislatures within specific districts,

243
00:11:01.355 --> 00:11:02.415
within states.

244
00:11:03.075 --> 00:11:06.455
Uh, but it also has major implications for democracy

245
00:11:07.285 --> 00:11:08.335
more generally, right?

246
00:11:08.435 --> 00:11:10.695
So simply put, if you have elites

247
00:11:10.695 --> 00:11:12.775
that are grouping people based on group identities

248
00:11:12.965 --> 00:11:15.015
that they don't agree with, right?

249
00:11:15.015 --> 00:11:17.655
If there's incongruence between the criteria

250
00:11:17.655 --> 00:11:19.935
that these institutions are using,

251
00:11:20.235 --> 00:11:21.815
and the identities that,

252
00:11:21.815 --> 00:11:24.415
people on the ground feel about themselves

253
00:11:24.755 --> 00:11:26.095
and they want to be represented,

254
00:11:26.565 --> 00:11:29.855
then this becomes major questions, kind of at the heart

255
00:11:29.915 --> 00:11:33.935
of representation, democracy, and political processes.

256
00:11:34.435 --> 00:11:36.695
In essence. One of the conclusions here is that there,

257
00:11:37.105 --> 00:11:38.575
there is no such thing as fair

258
00:11:38.595 --> 00:11:41.255
and neutral, criteria, right?

259
00:11:41.255 --> 00:11:43.455
This is, this is kind of Bruce Kane's,

260
00:11:43.455 --> 00:11:45.735
conclusion in his work in the eighties and nineties.

261
00:11:46.155 --> 00:11:49.055
And this puts some empirical teeth behind that to show

262
00:11:49.055 --> 00:11:50.975
that there, there is no possibility

263
00:11:50.975 --> 00:11:52.295
for fair and neutral criteria.

264
00:11:52.305 --> 00:11:54.005
Every criteria,

265
00:11:54.145 --> 00:11:55.965
is at the exclusion of some other criteria.

266
00:11:56.625 --> 00:12:00.085
But I do think that this paper provides a lot of information

267
00:12:00.185 --> 00:12:04.965
for voters, constituents, activists, reformers, who want

268
00:12:04.965 --> 00:12:06.445
to look at kind of

269
00:12:06.615 --> 00:12:08.725
where are the holes in the redistricting process?

270
00:12:08.935 --> 00:12:10.925
Where are there possibilities for reform?

271
00:12:11.505 --> 00:12:14.685
And I think really the, the biggest possibility

272
00:12:14.685 --> 00:12:17.005
for reform here would be to look more closely at

273
00:12:17.635 --> 00:12:18.925
what do the people actually want,

274
00:12:19.425 --> 00:12:20.925
and then to make that more congruent

275
00:12:20.925 --> 00:12:22.165
with the choices that are being made.

276
00:12:22.465 --> 00:12:26.165
So if people, for example, in many districts prefer

277
00:12:26.165 --> 00:12:28.445
to be represented based on their geographic identity

278
00:12:28.945 --> 00:12:31.565
as opposed to their partisan identity,

279
00:12:32.035 --> 00:12:34.565
then maybe the reforms should target institutions

280
00:12:34.565 --> 00:12:37.525
that aren't doing that or look at an institution like state

281
00:12:37.525 --> 00:12:39.165
courts and figure out why they're

282
00:12:39.585 --> 00:12:40.965
so effective at doing this.

283
00:12:41.465 --> 00:12:44.605
Uh, but again, this is kind of a path for future research,

284
00:12:44.705 --> 00:12:49.125
but also an opportunity for, kind of political reformers

285
00:12:49.125 --> 00:12:49.645
to get involved.

Redistricting: Balancing Boundaries and Political Goals

00:00:00 - Every 10 years in the United States, every state is required to redraw their congressional, districts. And theoretically, you could have infinite possibilities for how these districts are drawn. So with a, a state like Maine, for example, where there's only two districts, you only have to draw one line, but you could draw that one line infinitely cutting up the population of the state into two groups, based on anything. So in order to, actually complete this task, because there are so many possibilities, you have

00:00:38 - And so in reality, these criteria are usually, something like compactness or maintaining town or county political subdivision boundaries. It can be something else like partisan advantage, right? Helping Democrats or Republicans win. and so in reality, these criteria are almost always essentially, political goals, of the people who are in charge of drawing these maps. so in order to use one

00:01:09 - or county boundaries or, or partisan advantage, it requires people, it requires the people who are in charge of redistricting to conceive of the people who will be living in those districts by a specific group category, right? So with partisan advantage, you have to conceive of everybody living in that map as partisans, right? By their partisan identity. If it's, town or county, protection, then you're thinking of everybody

Conflicting Criteria in Redistricting

00:01:42 - And so, therefore we have these kind of different criteria. you're grouping constituents and voters based on these externally imposed group categories. and then this is where the, the kind of major wrinkle comes in that's critical for this, this research project, is that you can't choose all of the criteria, right? So some of these criteria are at the exclusion of other criteria.

00:02:11 - or conflicting criteria from the, from the title. So, because these criteria conflict with one another, you have to prioritize certain criteria at the exclusion of others. So, for example, if you prioritize compactness, maybe you aren't gonna be able to achieve goals of pars and advantage, or vice versa, right? So this paper really tries to put all these ideas together and show that when different institutions are in charge of the redistricting process, they correlate

00:02:41 - of other criteria. and the implications of this are that when you're favoring one category of group representation over the other, then you're doing, so, you're also favoring, one group of constituents, one identity for the constituents over another. So, for example, when you have a Democratic or Republican legislature, right, you are grouping people based on their party, group,

Bridging Gaps in Redistricting Research

00:03:12 - of, kind of scholarship. There's been a lot of re research on redistricting and representation. it makes sense. They go together. One, the purpose of redistricting is tied to representation. but none of that research really speaks to this question, or is kind of, most research on redistricting representation isn't kind of as broad as this project. So this project fills, a gap in the scholarship

00:03:46 - and, papers that people have done on specific criteria and specific groups. And then bringing in these more theoretical ideas about competing and conflicting criteria, from scholars like Bruce Kane, and kind of putting that all together in order to lead to these new conclusions, I wanted to take an approach that would be as comprehensive as possible. So I wanted to get as much data about as many of the redistricting institutions as I could, as well as,

00:04:16 - Many studies are kind of focused on, one set of criteria, something like compactness. How does compactness vary among these different institutions? what I was really interested in is when I look at all of the different institutions that are active, how do they compare on every single criteria, right? So, first I kind of considered all the different redistricting institutions that are active in redistricting that have the responsibility of actually drawing those maps.

Classification of Redistricting Institutions and Criteria

00:04:46 - and then I grouped those into subcategories of either partisan legislatures, Republican or democratic non-par or bipartisan legislatures, where they're split control, independent commissions, political commissions, and then state courts and federal courts. And then the second set of things, data that I needed was the redistricting criteria. and so I grouped those into four categories. There's partisan criteria, political criteria,

00:05:16 - And this is where I was able to bring in and kind of build on the work that a lot of other scholars did, in developing these different metrics for measuring things like, compactness or, partisan advantage, and bring in my own measurements for things like minority representation. And so your research distinguishes itself 'cause it's comprehensive, whereas they were just sort of se little tiny compartmentalized, Right? Exactly. my research was trying to be, it was trying

00:05:49 - to approximate the process of redistricting itself, where the redistricting institution has the opportunity to choose from infinite numbers of criteria, but they only choose some at the exclusion of others. So in order to do that, I needed a, a fairly comprehensive set of criteria. there's possibility for a more comprehensive set in the future, but I, I approached as comprehensive as I could with the data available. and I ended up collecting data

Analyzing Redistricting Data: Criteria Conflicts and Institutional Correlations

00:06:19 - So redistricting takes place after the census has taken place in years that ended zero and prior to, elections that, in years that ended two. So I collected data for 19 72, 19 82, 19 92, 2002, 2012, and 2022 for the analysis. What I did was, I used a bunch of, regression analyses to look at the correlations between redistricting institutions and these different criteria,

00:06:50 - of incorporating all the relevant control variables. But the idea was to identify where are there strong relationships between certain institutions and certain criteria. and what I ended up finding was that the redistricting criteria do conflict, right? You have each institution only correlates with a, with one or a small number of criteria, while there are kind of negative associations or no relationships, with many of the other criteria. So I'm able to kind of take those conclusions,

00:07:25 - about how these institutions may be, categorizing constituents and voters. For example, when a state court draws a redistricting map, they correlate highly with traditional criteria such as compactness. and this requires treating constituents based on their geographic identity at the exclusion of other criteria, which could mean treating them with bipartisan or, minority identity. Instead, there are some important distinctions

Differences in Redistricting Institutions and Their Impacts

00:07:57 - beyond just the, the criteria that they correlate with, right? So even though my findings show that there are differences in terms of the criteria that they're correlating with, there are also differences, major differences between the institutional design and purpose of a legislature or a court or a commission. so I, I think one of the things that really jumps out here is, state and federal courts kind of operate fundamentally differently in the redistricting

00:08:27 - So a, a commission may be designed explicitly for the creation of redistricting, right? The commission, their job, their sole purpose is congressional redistricting. a legislature has many different responsibilities, but they may be constitutionally, bound to do the redistricting process. State and federal courts will only get involved after those initial procedures fail, right? Something has to go wrong for the courts to get involved. And then other differences between these institutions are

00:09:00 - Legislators have to get reelected. federal judges are appointed for life. they have different incentives, and likely they have different goals. So the data from my paper shows that these institutions make different maps. They correlate with different criteria. and really this is, the kind of next step for future research is that this is ripe for, for causal inference, right? How do these insti, how do these constraints and incentives for the different institutions,

Redistricting: Elite Influence and Differing Judicial Approaches

00:09:33 - And maybe even also interestingly, are some of these criteria being chosen, accidentally or incidentally? And they are unaware of that, right? So they're, the kind of thinking about this in terms of partisan legislatures is pretty well known, right? Partisan, people who are associated with a party who have to run for reelection probably have partisan incentives. but for courts, for commissions, that's kind of ripe

00:10:04 - And also the, one of the things, one of the key findings from this paper is that federal and state courts are often grouped together in a lot of this research, and they're treated as if they're the same. and these findings show that state and federal courts are making different maps. They are likely valuing different, aspects of law when they are drawing these maps. The broader implications from this, from the study is, is, if we think about it in a really abstract sense, redistricting is sometimes it's called, you know,

00:10:36 - But I, I think we can think of it even more abstractly, that redistricting is essentially a process where political elites are grouping people, constituents and voters, the people, based on their own elite goals and criteria, right? So this has direct consequences for, which groups are represented and have political power, voting power in legislatures within specific districts, within states. but it also has major implications for democracy

Elites, Identity, and the Challenges of Fair Representation

00:11:08 - So simply put, if you have elites that are grouping people based on group identities that they don't agree with, right? If there's incongruence between the criteria that these institutions are using, and the identities that, people on the ground feel about themselves and they want to be represented, then this becomes major questions, kind of at the heart of representation, democracy, and political processes. In essence. One of the conclusions here is that there, there is no such thing as fair

00:11:41 - This is, this is kind of Bruce Kane's, conclusion in his work in the eighties and nineties. And this puts some empirical teeth behind that to show that there, there is no possibility for fair and neutral criteria. Every criteria, is at the exclusion of some other criteria. But I do think that this paper provides a lot of information for voters, constituents, activists, reformers, who want to look at kind of where are the holes in the redistricting process?

00:12:11 - And I think really the, the biggest possibility for reform here would be to look more closely at what do the people actually want, and then to make that more congruent with the choices that are being made. So if people, for example, in many districts prefer to be represented based on their geographic identity as opposed to their partisan identity, then maybe the reforms should target institutions that aren't doing that or look at an institution like state courts and figure out why they're

Opportunities for Future Research and Political Reform

00:12:49 - but again, this is kind of a path for future research, but also an opportunity for, kind of political reformers to get involved.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis

Data

Originals

Explainers

Podcasts

Faculti

New on Faculti

Idea Explorer

Definition

News Context

Critical Questions and Answers

Research Summaries

Competing Criteria: Rethinking Congressional Redistricting and Representation

Media Literacy Toolkit

Critical Questions to Consider ▼

Bias and Perspective Awareness ▼

Further Reading ▼