In the wake of Citizens United, the 2012 election suggested that the ballot box remained the great equalizer. Yet, if the ballot box is the great equalizer, the way to win without persuading through spending is, instead, to break the ballot box. Enter the Roberts Court, Louisiana v. Callais, and our old plague the gerrymander.

In the start of this 3 part series, I did some interesting research back to about 1850 to find accounts about gerrymandering to discuss how it’s always been a problem, the odd problems it created as civil rights and big data come into the picture, and how the SCOTUS just decided to open the floodgates of reverse racism and partisan line drawing like never before. I suggest this is a further eroding democracy. Important to convey, this is one of many problems facing American and, by-in-large, contemporary liberal democracies but this is one of my areas where knowledge and concern intersect.

Parts 2 and 3 will continue with the rule of law and civil society.

  • Krono@lemmy.today
    1·
    16 days ago

    How do we measure “democracy”? I think the best way is to measure how average citizen’s preferences influence policy.

    One of the largest political studies in history, conducted by Princeton, attempted to measure this.

    The Princeton University and Northwestern University study, titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”, concludes that the preferences of the average American have a “near-zero, statistically non-significant impact” on public policy.