United States Electoral Systems

This is the only full-length study to examine how different electoral systems impact the election of women and minorities to public office in the United States. Rule and Zimmerman have brought together leading scholars to show how different systems affect local, state, and national elections. Important demographic changes, new opportunities, and formidable problems are underscored in analyses of the effects of, among many other things, cumulative voting, judicial election systems, multimember and single-member districts, and reapportionment.

This study is unusual in combining an overall analysis of electoral systems and case material with proposals for making government more representative, inclusive, and responsive. Criteria are provided for evaluating the equity of electoral systems. The election of women and minorities to Congress is reviewed carefully, and options for increasing this direct representation of minorities and women are considered. Case studies describe legislative elections in several states. In-depth studies deal with local elections, cumulative and limited voting systems, alternative judicial electoral systems, and proportional representation. Academics and professionals who study political parties and electoral systems, minority politics, and women's studies will find this work to be especially intriguing and important.

WILMA RULE is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is secretary-treasurer of the Section on Representation and Electoral Systems of the American Political Science Association. Her major research interests are the legislative recruitment of Anglo and minority women and the effect that electoral systems have on their political opportunities. She has written at length on these subjects for scholarly journals.

JOSEPH F. ZIMMERMAN is Professor of Political Science in the Graduate School of Public Affairs, State University of New York at Albany. He is a former chair of the Section on Representation and Electoral Systems of the American Political Science Association. His books include Federal Preemption: The Silent Revolution (1991), Participatory Democracy: Populism Revived (Praeger, 1986), and State-Local Relations: A Partnership Approach (1983).