Political districting without geography
Physics and Society
2022-02-04 v2 Optimization and Control
Abstract
Geographical considerations such as contiguity and compactness are necessary elements of political districting in practice. Yet an analysis of the problem without such constraints yields mathematical insights that can inform real-world model construction. In particular, it clarifies the sharp contrast between proportionality and competitiveness and how it might be overcome in a properly formulated objective function. It also reveals serious weaknesses of the much-discussed efficiency gap as a criterion for gerrymandering.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2108.06381,
title = {Political districting without geography},
author = {Gerdus Benade and Nam Ho-Nguyen and J. N. Hooker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.06381},
year = {2022}
}