title: Political reform in US states: Governors, legislators, and struggles over election redistricting law reform

authors: Commerer, Brent

subjects: US politics

abstract: In the United States, the decentralization of power over redistricting to the states has prevented the emergence of a national compromise between the major political parties to mutually reject election manipulation through gerrymandering. A confusing patchwork of redistricting regimes exist across the US, with significant variations between states in their gerrymandering practices and attempted anti-gerrymandering constraints. State legislators and parties typically cling tenaciously to their authority over redistricting in order to protect their own electoral interests, including through gerrymandering when possible. But in a quarter of US states, legislators have agreed to reduce their own redistricting powers in some way, for example, by delegation to a commission or executive officers. This research investigates why. Why has election redistricting law reform been enacted by some US state legislatures and not others, and under what conditions do legislators give up some of their powers over redistricting?

The chief original contribution of this thesis is the development of a new index to systematically measure and compare the redistricting systems of US states, as an alternative to simple arbitrary categorizations. System information has been collected inductively through analysis of all state constitutions, laws, and practices relevant to redistricting, and coded for all states to create a ten-point index of redistricting neutrality. This institutional and input-based approach complements the map-focused and output-based approach to gerrymandering detection popular in political science, such as the efficiency gap statistical test of Stephanopoulos and McGhee (2015) that was recently rejected by the US Supreme Court. Hypotheses have been methodically tested against the redistricting neutrality index and the key finding is that the variables normally used to explain inter-state political differences fail to explain variation in the redistricting index. Reform is not exclusive to small states, or rich states, or liberal states, or white states, or rural states, or Democratic states. An additional contribution of the thesis is a small expansion in our knowledge of redistricting system history, through brief case studies that examine political struggles over specific reforms in individual states.

The core argument of this research is that two factors most plausibly answer the research questions. First, gubernatorial leadership. Strong support from the governor is a necessary condition for reform in nearly all cases, as a means of herding legislative cats to a common purpose. This is true of most state policy areas and it is true of political reform as well. Second, strategic windows of opportunity are essential for providing leverage for leaders and reformers to persuade legislators to prioritize redistricting reform over their other interests. For example, perceived meddling by courts, ballot initiative threats, and concerns about future election losses can temporarily boost legislator support for reform, if a policy entrepreneur has done the work and is prepared to seize a rare opportunity when it arises. Gerrymandering does not harm individuals directly (as does denial of the right to vote) but rather indirectly through a distortion of democratic representation and the balance of political power, so reform coalitions struggle to mobilize public opinion about redistricting or to sustain issue salience. For states to reform redistricting, they need pro-reform governors and favourable contingent factors to help sway legislators.

text: Political reform in US states: Governors, legislators, and struggles over election redistricting law reform In the United States, the decentralization of power over redistricting to the states has prevented the emergence of a national compromise between the major political parties to mutually reject election manipulation through gerrymandering. A confusing patchwork of redistricting regimes exist across the US, with significant variations between states in their gerrymandering practices and attempted anti-gerrymandering constraints. State legislators and parties typically cling tenaciously to their authority over redistricting in order to protect their own electoral interests, including through gerrymandering when possible. But in a quarter of US states, legislators have agreed to reduce their own redistricting powers in some way, for example, by delegation to a commission or executive officers. This research investigates why. Why has election redistricting law reform been enacted by some US state legislatures and not others, and under what conditions do legislators give up some of their powers over redistricting?

The chief original contribution of this thesis is the development of a new index to systematically measure and compare the redistricting systems of US states, as an alternative to simple arbitrary categorizations. System information has been collected inductively through analysis of all state constitutions, laws, and practices relevant to redistricting, and coded for all states to create a ten-point index of redistricting neutrality. This institutional and input-based approach complements the map-focused and output-based approach to gerrymandering detection popular in political science, such as the efficiency gap statistical test of Stephanopoulos and McGhee (2015) that was recently rejected by the US Supreme Court. Hypotheses have been methodically tested against the redistricting neutrality index and the key finding is that the variables normally used to explain inter-state political differences fail to explain variation in the redistricting index. Reform is not exclusive to small states, or rich states, or liberal states, or white states, or rural states, or Democratic states. An additional contribution of the thesis is a small expansion in our knowledge of redistricting system history, through brief case studies that examine political struggles over specific reforms in individual states.

The core argument of this research is that two factors most plausibly answer the research questions. First, gubernatorial leadership. Strong support from the governor is a necessary condition for reform in nearly all cases, as a means of herding legislative cats to a common purpose. This is true of most state policy areas and it is true of political reform as well. Second, strategic windows of opportunity are essential for providing leverage for leaders and reformers to persuade legislators to prioritize redistricting reform over their other interests. For example, perceived meddling by courts, ballot initiative threats, and concerns about future election losses can temporarily boost legislator support for reform, if a policy entrepreneur has done the work and is prepared to seize a rare opportunity when it arises. Gerrymandering does not harm individuals directly (as does denial of the right to vote) but rather indirectly through a distortion of democratic representation and the balance of political power, so reform coalitions struggle to mobilize public opinion about redistricting or to sustain issue salience. For states to reform redistricting, they need pro-reform governors and favourable contingent factors to help sway legislators.

year: 2021

title: Greenbug: a hybrid web-inspector, debugger and design editor for greenstone

authors: Bainbridge, David

subjects: general purpose digital libraries

abstract: In this paper we present Greenbug: a hybrid web inspector, debugger and design editor developed for use with the open source digital library software Greenstone 3. Inspired by the web development tool Firebug, Greenbug is more tightly coupled with the underlying (digital library) server than that provided by Firebug; for example, Greenbug has a fine-grained knowledge of the connection between the underlying file system and the rendered web content, and also provides the ability to commit any changes made through the web interface back to the underlying file system. Moreover, because web page production in Greenstone 3 is the result of an XSLT processing pipeline, the necessarily well-formed hierarchical XML content can be manipulated into a graphical representation, which can then be manipulated directly through a visual interface supplied by Greenbug. We showcase the interface in use, provide a brief overview of implementation details, and conclude with a discussion on how the approach can be adapted to other XSLT transformation-based content management systems, such as DSpace.

text: Greenbug: a hybrid web-inspector, debugger and design editor for greenstone In this paper we present Greenbug: a hybrid web inspector, debugger and design editor developed for use with the open source digital library software Greenstone 3. Inspired by the web development tool Firebug, Greenbug is more tightly coupled with the underlying (digital library) server than that provided by Firebug; for example, Greenbug has a fine-grained knowledge of the connection between the underlying file system and the rendered web content, and also provides the ability to commit any changes made through the web interface back to the underlying file system. Moreover, because web page production in Greenstone 3 is the result of an XSLT processing pipeline, the necessarily well-formed hierarchical XML content can be manipulated into a graphical representation, which can then be manipulated directly through a visual interface supplied by Greenbug. We showcase the interface in use, provide a brief overview of implementation details, and conclude with a discussion on how the approach can be adapted to other XSLT transformation-based content management systems, such as DSpace.

year: 2013

title: Constructing strategies for sustainable development the communitarian way

authors: Arunachalam, Murugesh

subjects: communities

abstract: Purpose – The paper aims to draw on recommendations of Agenda 21 and communitarian theory to examine collaboration between local district community and local authorities to formulate strategies for the sustainable development of the Taupo district. 
Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts an interpretative methodology based on philosophical hermeneutic to understand collaboration between local community and local authorities in the Taupo district. Empirical data for this interpretive study comprise public documents, interview transcripts and minutes of meetings attended by the researchers. The paper begins interpretation of empirical data with pre-understanding of communitarian theory and Agenda 21. 
Findings – The findings indicate that historical and political factors and diversity of interests in the community affect processes and outcomes of collaboration. Local authorities play a crucial role in bringing together various groups in the Taupo community which are segregated by diversity of interests, especially between Maori and non-Maori community groups. Without local authority facilitation, the Taupo community may remain segregated; inhibited by lack of information; and not having the opportunity to participate in sustainable development. Community participation in the Taupo district is at an infancy stage and collaboration intended to empower communities may result in local authorities recentralising their positions. 
Originality/value – The paper integrates theory and practice and provides valuable insights for statutory agencies seeking to implement the recommendations of Agenda 21 regarding community participation in sustainable development.

text: Constructing strategies for sustainable development the communitarian way Purpose – The paper aims to draw on recommendations of Agenda 21 and communitarian theory to examine collaboration between local district community and local authorities to formulate strategies for the sustainable development of the Taupo district. 
Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts an interpretative methodology based on philosophical hermeneutic to understand collaboration between local community and local authorities in the Taupo district. Empirical data for this interpretive study comprise public documents, interview transcripts and minutes of meetings attended by the researchers. The paper begins interpretation of empirical data with pre-understanding of communitarian theory and Agenda 21. 
Findings – The findings indicate that historical and political factors and diversity of interests in the community affect processes and outcomes of collaboration. Local authorities play a crucial role in bringing together various groups in the Taupo community which are segregated by diversity of interests, especially between Maori and non-Maori community groups. Without local authority facilitation, the Taupo community may remain segregated; inhibited by lack of information; and not having the opportunity to participate in sustainable development. Community participation in the Taupo district is at an infancy stage and collaboration intended to empower communities may result in local authorities recentralising their positions. 
Originality/value – The paper integrates theory and practice and provides valuable insights for statutory agencies seeking to implement the recommendations of Agenda 21 regarding community participation in sustainable development.

year: 2010