County governments are a crucial component of the fabric of American democracy. Yet there has been almost no previous research on the policy effects of the partisan composition of county governments.
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How would you measure the state of local democracy across the U.S.? Are local governments in some states more representative and democratic than in others? How does the United States
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When talking about voting rights cases, the news media often talks about the big cases that involve gerrymandering, voter identification and redistricting, but a lot of legal action around voting
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The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri brought to light a set of racial injustices in the lived daily experiences of the city’s African American residents. Attempts to understand
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We explore the impacts of minority representation in local governments on distributional outcomes throughout the cities that they govern. In particular, we take advantage of a unique dataset identifying the
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This article focuses on my work in Illinois to use the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to improve minority representation at the local level, but the themes and findings are applicable
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The number of minorities serving in legislatures, councils, and governing boards varies greatly across regions of the country and across levels of government. For example, on the national level, there
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In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the city is not permitted to extend its municipal broadband service to woefully underserved rural neighbors, despite widespread support from people who live there. The city of
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Voter turnout in the 2014 midterm elections (36.3 percent) was the lowest it’s been since World War II. Turnout for local elections is even lower, with research showing only 1
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Fewer than one in five eligible residents in Los Angeles vote in mayoral elections. In New York City, that figure falls to less than 14 percent. In fact, in 15
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At a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday, the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation presented new public opinion data that shows American voters are eager for three key electoral reforms that
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Just how many elected officials are there in the United States in total? It’s an easy question to start answering—you begin with the president and vice president (two), plus Congress
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