Race, Ethnicity, and the Politics of City Redistricting
Subtitle: Minority-Opportunity Districts and the Election of Hispanics and Blacks to City Councils (African American Studies)
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: March 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780791459966
Subjects: Ethnic studies; Political science & theory; Urban communities; Politics/International Relations; Human Geography; Gerrymandering; Discrimination & Racism; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; USA; Local elections; Government - Local; Minority Studies - General; United States; Social Science; Government - State & Provincial; Apportionment (Election law); City council members
Description: "Why do cities with similar minority populations vary greatly in the adoption of minority-opportunity districts and, by extension, differ in the number of elected Hispanic and black representatives? Through in-depth research of the districting processes of more than 100 cities, Race, Ethnicity, and the Politics of City Redistricting provides the first nationwide study of minority-opportunity districts at the local level. Joshua G. Behr explores the motives of the players involved, including incumbent legislators, Department of Justice officials, and organized interests, while investigating the roles that segregation, federal oversight, litigation, partisan elections, and resource disparity, among others, play in the election of Hispanics and blacks.

Behr's book documents - for both theorists and practitioners - the necessary conditions for enhancing minority-opportunity districts at the local level."--Jacket.