Congressional Districting: The Issue of Equal Representation
About this ebook
The Court’s decision has raised a number of issues, including the question whether the drive for more equal representation in the state legislatures will affect the United States Congress. The Brookings Institution therefore asked Prof. Andrew Hacker, of the Depart. of Government, Cornell University, to prepare a problem paper that would examine the present congressional districts from the viewpoint of the problems that might arise in connection with reapportionment in the states. The objective was a brief informative analysis drawing largely on available materials, with an early deadline precluding much new research.
Mr. Hacker’s report approaches this subject from several vantage points. Among these are: the constitutional and historical background of congressional districting; state and judicial action as it applies to the Congress; reasons for the disproportion between votes cast and seats won; and the extent and consequences of inequalities in representation in the House of Representatives. Mr. Hacker indicates that the House does not give an equal voice to all of its constituents, and that prevailing inequities may become even more pronounced since the forces opposing reform feel strongly that justice is on their side, and the courts have yet to indicate how far they will go in applying the doctrine of equal representation enunciated in Baker v. Carr—or, indeed, whether they will apply it at all to congressional districts.—Robert Calkins
About the author
ANDREW HACKER is an American political scientist and public intellectual. Born on August 30, 1929 in New York, the son of Prof. Louis M. Hacker, and Lillian Lewis Hacker, he graduated with a B.A. degree from Amherst College in 1951. This was followed graduate work at Oxford University, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1955. He taught at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from 1955-1971 and then joined Queens College in Flushing, New York, where he is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science. Prof. Hacker was a visiting professor at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies in Salzburg, Austria, and a Consultant for the Fund for the Republic, NICB, NBC, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. A prolific author, his most recent book, Higher Education? was written in collaboration with his wife Claudia Dreifus, a New York Times science writer and Columbia University professor. Prof. Hacker is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. He received Fellowships from the Social Science Research Council (1954-1955) and the Ford Foundation (1962-1963) and is a member of the American Political Science Association and the American Society for Legal and Political Philosophy. ROBERT D. CALKINS (1903-1992) was head of the Brookings Institution from 1952-1967. A native of Lebanon, Connecticut, he grew up in Florida and Williamsburg, where he graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1925. He received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Economics from Stanford University. He served as Chairman of the Economics Department at the University of California at Berkeley and Dean of the Business School of Columbia University. In 1947, he became Vice President of the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Calkins was an adviser to government agencies over the years, including the War Department. He died in 1992, aged 89.
