Stacking the States, Stacking the House: The Partisan Consequences of Congressional Redistricting in the 19th Century

Erik J. Engstrom

American Political Science Review, 2006, vol. 100, issue 3, 419-427

Abstract: Considerable debate exists over the impact of redistricting on the partisan composition of the U.S. Congress. I address this debate by turning to an era of congressional redistricting that has received little systematic attention—the politics of gerrymandering in the 19th century. Using statewide-, county-, and ward-level electoral data from 1870 to 1900, I show that when a single party controlled the districting process, they used districting to systematically engineer a favorable partisan bias. These partisan biases affected the partisan composition of state congressional delegations and at times even helped determine party control of the House of Representatives.

Date: 2006
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