Events

What drives variation in redistricting across U.S. history? Redistricting is an electorally disruptive action that reshapes the representative-constituent relationship, and gerrymandering is a persistent feature of American politics. But leaving maps unchanged is just as political as changing them. This book introduces the concept of district protectionism: the strategic preservation of existing electoral geography to maintain established distributions of power. I argue that mapmakers have repeatedly used minimal-change maps to preserve partisan advantage, protect incumbents, and sustain racial inequalities by allowing demographic change to outpace institutional adaptation. To measure these dynamics, I introduce the MAPS scores, which quantify changes in congressional district Margins, Alignment, Position, and Size across more than two centuries. The book argues that American political development is shaped not only by moments of dramatic institutional reform, but also by long periods of strategic continuity, with important consequences for democratic representation and political inequality.

The Political Science Seminar Series is convened by Desmond King and David Rueda For more information on this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact politics.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.