Gerrymander definition, the dividing of a state, county, etc., into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible. Gerrymandering, in U.S. politics, the practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over its rivals (political or partisan gerrymandering) or that dilutes the voting power of members of ethnic or linguistic minority groups (racial gerrymandering). Gerrymandering reduces the number of competitive congressional races across the United States by segregating like-minded voters from each other. Fourteen Fun Facts About Love and Sex in the Animal Kingdom, Behind the Scenes With the White House Residence's Long-Serving Staff, The Lab Saving the World From Snake Bites, How Hedges Became the Unofficial Emblem of Great Britain.
Image via Wikimedia Commons: Public Domain, Link, Mignon Fogarty is Grammar Girl and the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. In other words, gerrymandering can be used by office holders of the party in power to either spread voters from the opposing party across districts or to give a competitive edge to their own candidates.
Why Do “Left” And “Right” Mean Liberal And Conservative? …must not be confused with gerrymandering—a form of arbitrary districting used to benefit the party that at a given time controls the apportionment process. Well-known in his day, Gerry was a wild-eyed eccentric and an awkward speaker, a trusted confidant of John Adams and a deep (if peculiar) thinker. What Is the Dot over the Letter "i" Called? It’s a hot issue in American politics right now, but “gerrymandering” also struck me as an odd word, and I started wondering about its origin, which turned out to be interesting. Elected to the Continental Congress in December 1775, Gerry lobbied his fellow delegates to declare independence from Great Britain. “The Gerry-mander,” political cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale. It’s an injustice that Gerry is best remembered for gerrymandering. But gerrymandering has cold cocked the pendulum weight, stopped it dead. Corrections? Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012. No, a “Gerry-mander,” offered poet Richard Alsop, who often collaborated with Tisdale. Other European countries such as Austria, Czechia or Sweden, among many others, have electoral districts with fixed boundaries (usually one district for each administrative division). He died, after complaining of chest pains, on November 23, 1814, at age 70. ), Tisdale’s drawing, headlined “The Gerry-mander,” appeared in the Boston Gazette of March 26, 1812. Where Did the Term “Gerrymander” Come From? Give a Gift. For a naked, avowed plan of gerrymandering no Government surely ever did beat this one. The law consolidated the Federalist Party vote in a few districts and thus gave disproportionate representation to Democratic-Republicans.
He spent its first two months arguing for less democracy in the new government than his colleagues were willing to support. You may have heard about this in the news, but how is it affecting you? In the U.S., the act of gerrymandering has existed essentially as long as the idea of … The father of gerrymandering. It worked: the freakishly shaped district elected three Democratic-Republicans that year, 1812, breaking up the county’s previous delegation of five Federalist senators. By 1848, the word had found dictionary acceptance. Gerrymandering History: What Is the Origin of the Term? The Croats found themselves no match for the astute Magyars who resorted to packed diets, gerrymandering, bribery, and forgery. The Federalists were outraged and, according to Smithsonian Magazine, a Federalist dinner party conversation led to the idea that the shape of one new district resembled a monster. Even in dissent, Gerry did his part as a framer. Other sources credit Federalist newspaper editors, including Nathan Hale, with inventing the term, but either way, the cartoon appeared in the “Boston Gazette” and solidified the name and concept in the American imagination. The Twisted History of Gerrymandering in American Politics. Instead, the justices held unanimously (9–0) that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, and the case was remanded (7–2) to the district court for further argument. relating to or being a people who are the original, earliest known inhabitants of a region, or are their descendants. They responded with a satire so piercing, it has overshadowed all of Gerry’s other accomplishments in history. Sorry. Below it, a fanciful satire joked that the beast had been born in the extreme heat of partisan anger—the “many fiery ebullitions of party spirit, many explosions of democratic wrath and fulminations of gubernatorial vengeance within the year past.”. He became an Anti-Federalist, arguing that the Constitution had gotten the balance of power between states and the national government wrong.
Elbridge Gerry was a powerful voice in the founding of the nation, but today he’s best known for the political practice with an amphibious origin "Gerrymandering" comes from a nineteenth-century governor, a dastardly political scheme, and one talented illustrator.