Electoral rules and minority representation in US cities

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Trebbi, Francesco; Aghion, Philippe; Alesina, Alberto
• 署名单位: Harvard University; University of Chicago; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR); Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.325
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 325-357
• 关键词: black representation; institutions

摘要

This paper studies the choice of electoral rules and in particular the question of minority representation. Majorities tend to disenfranchise minorities through strategic manipulation of electoral rules. With the aim of explaining changes in electoral rules adopted by U.S. cities, particularly in the South, we show why majorities tend to adopt winner-take-all city-wide rules (at-large elections) in response to an increase in the size of the minority when the minority they are facing is relatively small. In this case, for the majority it is more effective to leverage on its sheer size instead of risking conceding representation to voters from minority-elected districts. However, as the minority becomes larger (closer to a fifty-fifty split), the possibility of losing the whole city induces the majority to prefer minority votes to be confined in minority-packed districts. Single-member district rules serve this purpose. We show empirical results consistent with these implications of the model in a novel data set covering U.S. cities and towns from 1930 to 2000.