56
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
56 points (100.0% liked)
Politics
10170 readers
99 users here now
In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.
Guidelines for submissions:
- Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
- Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
- Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
- Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
- Social media should be a source of last resort.
These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's interesting to see US political mechanics as a foreigner.
Isn't gerrymandering just deciding who "the majority" is? Can't constitutional amendments be revoked? A "ballot initiative" was news to me, and seems a bit more like a form of direct democracy. Am I misunderstanding that?
Gerrymandering is complicated. Simplest version; it involves diluting the vote of smaller groups who likely would have been able to vote in representation into the government if not for the interference.
This is done by breaking up that voting group among groups that favor the manipulating party.
The wiki on it does a good job of providing the details.
You are right that anything done can be undone BUT it requires the same level of governmental control. And if you can gerrymander the heck out of the voters, you can pass almost anything.
Note: it is not a purely 'popular' vote. That would bypass gerrymandering. Gerrymandering depends on block voting.