The deliberate drawing of electoral district boundaries to favor one party or group over another, typically by concentrating the opposing side's voters into as few districts as possible, known as packing, or spreading them thinly across many districts where they fall short of a majority, known as cracking. The term originates in an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting law enacted under Governor Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, that consolidated Federalist Party voters into a small number of districts and thereby gave disproportionate representation to Gerry's own Democratic-Republican party. A satirical cartoon in the Boston Gazette by Elkanah Tisdale drew one of the resulting district outlines, thought to resemble a salamander, as a fantastical creature dubbed the Gerry-mander, and the name stuck to the practice generally rather than only to that one map. Gerrymandering is possible only where representatives are elected from geographically defined single-member districts, the defining structural feature of first past the post, since a district's boundary has no effect on a party's seat count under proportional representation, where seats track vote share directly rather than depending on where a district line happens to fall.
Facts
Origin YearThe term itself: the 1812 Massachusetts redistricting law enacted under Governor Elbridge Gerry and the Boston Gazette cartoon that coined the name. Not a claim that the underlying practice of favorable districting began in 1812; only the word did. Founding ContextThe practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to favor one party or group takes its name from an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting law signed by Governor Elbridge Gerry, whose oddly shaped districts were compared in a Boston newspaper cartoon to a salamander. Deliberately shaping districts for partisan advantage is far older than the word, but the 1812 episode is what gave the practice its lasting name. 2 Connections
Associated With
The term originated in an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting law signed by Governor Elbridge Gerry.
Source Massachusetts Historical Society: The Gerrymander
Influenced By
Gerrymandering is possible only where representatives are elected from single-member geographic districts, the defining structural feature of first past the post; a proportional formula largely removes the incentive and the opportunity, since a district boundary does not change a party's seat share.
Source Gerrymandering (Britannica)
Practiced By
Source Gerrymandering (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Gerrymandering (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaLead definition paragraphQuote, Lead definition paragraph
gerrymandering , in U.S. politics, the practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an advantage over its rivals (political or partisan gerrymandering) or that dilutes the voting power of members of racial or ethnic minority groups (racial gerrymandering).
2. Massachusetts Historical Society: The Gerrymander
Massachusetts Historical Societyopening sectionQuote, opening section
The legend of the gerrymander came into being in 1812 at a meeting of Federalist political leaders and newspapermen in Boston.
Gerrymandering (Wikipedia)
In Group: Franchise, Districting and Electoral Effects, Lead paragraph
Gerrymandering ( JERR-ee-, originally GHERR-ee-), defined in the contexts of representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency.
Practiced By: United States, Lead paragraph
The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States until his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisanly-drawn district in the Boston area that was thought to be similar to the shape of a salamander.
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