Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-t27h7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-15T16:43:00.782Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stacking the States, Stacking the House: The Partisan Consequences of Congressional Redistricting in the 19th Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2006

ERIK J. ENGSTROM
ERIK J. ENGSTROM
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Considerable debate exists over the impact of redistricting on the partisan composition of the U.S. Congress. I address this debate by turning to an era of congressional redistricting that has received little systematic attention—the politics of gerrymandering in the 19th century. Using statewide-, county-, and ward-level electoral data from 1870 to 1900, I show that when a single party controlled the districting process, they used districting to systematically engineer a favorable partisan bias. These partisan biases affected the partisan composition of state congressional delegations and at times even helped determine party control of the House of Representatives.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 100 , Issue 3 , August 2006 , pp. 419 - 427
Copyright
© 2006 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Argersinger Peter. 1992. Structure, Process, and Party: Essays in American Political History. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Bawn Kathleen. 1993. “The Logic of Institutional Preferences: German Electoral Law as a Social Choice Outcome.” American Journal of Political Science 37 (November): 965– 89.Google Scholar
Bensel Richard Franklin. 2004. The American Ballot Box in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Binder Sarah A. 1997. Majority Rights, Minority Rule: Partisanship and the Development of Congress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Born Richard. 1985. “Partisan Intentions and Election Day Realities in the Congressional Districting Process.” American Political Science Review 79 (June): 305– 19.Google Scholar
Brady David. 1988. Critical Elections and Congressional Policymaking. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Brady David, and Bernard Grofman. 1991. “Sectional Differences in Partisan Bias and Electoral Responsiveness in U.S. House Elections, 1850–1980.” British Journal of Political Science 21 (April): 247– 56.Google Scholar
Burnham Walter Dean. 1982. “The Appearance and Disappearance of the American Voter.” In The Current Crisis in American Politics, ed. Walter Dean Burnham. New York: Oxford University Press.
Burnham Walter Dean. 1986. Partisan Division of State Governments, 1834–1985. Computer File, ICPSR #0016.
Butler David, and Bruce Cain. 1992. Congressional Redistricting. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Cain Bruce. 1985. “Assessing the Partisan Effects of Redistricting.” American Political Science Review 79 (June): 320– 32.Google Scholar
Campagna Janet, and Bernard Grofman. 1990. “Party Control and Partisan Bias in 1980's Congressional Redistricting.” Journal of Politics 52 (November): 1242– 57.Google Scholar
Carson Jamie L., and Jason Roberts. 2005. “Strategic Politicians and U.S. House Elections, 1874–1914.” Journal of Politics 67 (May): 474– 96.Google Scholar
Clubb Jerome, William Flanigan, and Nancy Zingale. 1987. Electoral Data for Counties in the United States: Presidential and Congressional Races, 1840–1972. Computer File, ICPSR #8611.
Cox Gary W. 1998. Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cox Gary W., and Jonathan Katz. 2002. Elbridge Gerry's Salamander: The Electoral Consequences of the Reapportionment Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cox Gary W., and Jonathan Katz. 1999. “The Reapportionment Revolution and Bias in U.S. Congressional Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 43 (July): 812– 41.Google Scholar
Cox Gary W., and J. Morgan Kousser. 1981. “Turnout and Rural Corruption: New York as a Test Case.” American Journal of Political Science 25 (November): 646– 63.Google Scholar
Engstrom Erik J., and Samuel Kernell. 2005. “Manufactured Responsiveness: The Impact of State Electoral Laws on Unified Party Control of the Presidency and the House of Representatives, 1840–1940.” American Journal of Political Science 49 (July): 531– 49.Google Scholar
Gelman Andrew, and Gary King. 1994. “Enhancing Democracy Through Legislative Redistricting.” American Political Science Review 88 (September): 541– 59.Google Scholar
Giroux Gregory L. 2005. “New Redistricting Plans Could Open the Floodgates.” CQ Weekly. February 28, p. 500.Google Scholar
Glazer Amahai, Bernard Grofman, and Marc Robbins. 1987. “Partisan and Incumbency Effects of 1970's Redistricting.” American Journal of Political Science 31 (August): 680– 707.Google Scholar
Griffith Elmer C. 1907. The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company.
Grofman Bernard. 1983. “Measures of Bias and Proportionality in Seats-Votes Relationships.” Political Methodology 9 (3): 278– 95.Google Scholar
Grofman Bernard, William Koetzle, and Thomas Brunell. 1997. “An Integrated Perspective on the Three Potential Sources of Partisan Bias: Malapportionment, Turnout Differences, and The Geographic Distribution of the Party Vote.” Electoral Studies 16 (December): 454– 70.Google Scholar
Katz Jonathan, and Brian Sala. 1996. “Careerism, Committee Assignments, and the Electoral Connection.” American Political Science Review 90 (March): 21– 33.Google Scholar
Kernell Samuel. 1977. “Toward Understanding 19th Century Congressional Careers: Ambition, Competition, and Rotation.” American Journal of Political Science 21 (November): 669– 93.Google Scholar
Kousser J. Morgan. 1992. “The Voting Rights Act and the Two Reconstructions.” In Controversies in Minority Voting, eds. Bernard Grofman and Chandler Davidson. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Kousser J. Morgan. 1996. “Estimating the Partisan Consequences of Redistricting Plans—Simply.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 21 (November): 521– 41.Google Scholar
Martis Kenneth. 1982. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts, 1789–1983. New York: The Free Press.
McMillan Malcolm Cook. 1978. Constitutional Development in Alabama, 1798–1901.
Spartanburg South Carolina: The Reprint Company. National Council of State Legislatures. 2003. “Divided Government in the States.” http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legman/elect/divgov.htm.
Owen Guillermo, and Bernard Grofman. 1988. “Optimal Partisan Gerrymandering.” Political Geography Quarterly 7 (January): 5– 22.Google Scholar
Palmquist Bradley. 1999. “Analysis of Proportions Data.” Unpublished typescript. Vanderbilt University.
Polsby Nelson W. 1968. “The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives.” American Political Science Review 62 (March): 144– 68.Google Scholar
Price H. Douglas. 1975. “Congress and the Evolution of Legislative ‘Professionalism’.” In Congress in Change: Evolution and Reform, ed. Norman J. Ornstein. New York: Praeger.
Rusk Jerrold G. 2002. A Statistical History of the American Electorate. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
Schickler Eric. 2001. Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Silbey Joel. 1991. The American Political Nation, 1838–1893. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Stewart Charles III. 1991. “Lessons from the Post-Civil War Era.” In The Politics of Divided Government. ed. Gary W. Cox and Samuel Kernell. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Stewart Charles III, and Barry R. Weingast. 1992. “Stacking the Senate, Changing the Nation: Republican Rotten Boroughs, Statehood Politics, and American Political Development.” Studies in American Political Development 6: 223– 71.Google Scholar
Swain John W., Stephen A. Borrelli, and Brian C. Reed. 1998. “Partisan Consequences of the Post-1990 Redistricting for the U.S. House of Representatives.” Political Research Quarterly. 51 (December): 945– 67.Google Scholar
Tufte Edward. 1973. “The Relationship Between Seats and Votes in Two-Party Systems.” American Political Science Review 68 (June): 540– 54.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.