A Right to Representation

by Barber, Kathleen L.

• ISBN13: 9780814250587
• ISBN10: 0814250580
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Ohio State Univ Pr

Summary

The United States is one of very few democracies in the world to use winner-take-all elections to choose representatives for legislatures, city councils, and even most school boards. A typical American election occurs in a single-member district or ward, where the candidate with the most votes wins, whether chosen by a majority or, in a multicandidate race, by only a plurality of voters.

From this practice stems the endemic underrepresentation of minorities in our political life. Enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has led to increased minority electoral success, but the strategy most commonly used -- creation of majority-minority districts -- has come under attack in the Supreme Court.

Alternative voting methods -- cumulative voting, limited voting, instant run-off, and several varieties of proportional representation -- are gaining acceptance in the United States, but are not widely understood. In this book, an outgrowth of her earlier Proportional Representation and Electoral Reform in Ohio, Kathleen L. Barber explores their origins, explains their use

Author Biography

Kathleen L. Barber is a retired professor of political science living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	xi
Inventing Election Systems	1	(29)
The Progressive Crusade for Proportional Representation	30	(32)
How and Why Proportional Election Systems Work	62	(19)
Tales of Five Cities	81	(42)
The Voting Rights Act and the Right to Representation	123	(38)
Notes	161	(18)
Bibliography	179	(18)
Index	197