Mass Preferences on Shared Representation and the Composition of Legislative Districts Article

Christenson, D, Makse, T. (2015). Mass Preferences on Shared Representation and the Composition of Legislative Districts . AMERICAN POLITICS RESEARCH, 43(3), 451-478. 10.1177/1532673X14552127

cited authors

  • Christenson, D; Makse, T

authors

abstract

  • Scholars of redistricting often discuss “communities of interest” as a guideline for drawing districts, but scholarship offers little guidance on how citizens construe communities and interests in the context of representation. In this article, we seek to better understand how citizens’ perceptions of people and places affect preferences regarding representation. Using an original survey conducted in 15 Massachusetts communities, we explore whether citizens have meaningful preferences about the communities with whom they share the same representative. To the extent they do, we test whether these preferences are driven by geographic considerations or other factors such as partisanship, race, and socioeconomic status. Our findings not only offer the opportunity to refine the concept of “communities of interest” to account for voter preferences but also more broadly speak to the literature on the increasingly political nature of residential preferences and their impact on political attitudes, participation, and voting behavior.

publication date

  • May 6, 2015

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 451

end page

  • 478

volume

  • 43

issue

  • 3