IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v52y2008i3p554-569.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Context Matters: The Effects of Single‐Member versus At‐Large Districts on City Council Diversity

Author

Listed:
  • Jessica Trounstine
  • Melody E. Valdini

Abstract

Scholars continue to debate the degree to which electoral institutions matter for representation. The literature predicts that minorities benefit from districts while women benefit from at‐large elections. The mechanisms by which institutions affect the ability of traditionally underrepresented groups to win seats have been understudied. Using an analysis of over 7,000 cities and interviews with city councilors, we find that compared to at‐large systems, district systems can increase diversity only when underrepresented groups are highly concentrated and compose a substantial portion of the population. In addition, we find that the electoral system has a significant effect on representation only for African American male and white female councilors; the proportion of African American women and Latina councilors is not affected by the use of either district or at‐large systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Trounstine & Melody E. Valdini, 2008. "The Context Matters: The Effects of Single‐Member versus At‐Large Districts on City Council Diversity," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 554-569, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:52:y:2008:i:3:p:554-569
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00329.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00329.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00329.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathleen Dolan, 2004. "The Impact of Candidate Sex on Evaluations of Candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 85(1), pages 206-217, March.
    2. Conover, Pamela Johnston, 1988. "The Role of Social Groups in Political Thinking," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 51-76, January.
    3. Tasha S. Philpot & Hanes Walton, 2007. "One of Our Own: Black Female Candidates and the Voters Who Support Them," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 49-62, January.
    4. Tim R. Sass, 2000. "The Determinants of Hispanic Representation in Municipal Government," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(3), pages 609-630, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bonnie G. Mani, 2014. "Determinants of a City Manager’s Tenure in Office," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440145, February.
    2. Melissa J. Marschall & Anirudh V. S. Ruhil & Paru R. Shah, 2010. "The New Racial Calculus: Electoral Institutions and Black Representation in Local Legislatures," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 107-124, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Donald R. Haurin & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2009. "Language, Agglomeration and Hispanic Homeownership," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 155-183, June.
    2. Fan Lu, 2020. "The Dual Identity of Asian Americans," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1869-1884, September.
    3. Carolyn Abott & Asya Magazinnik, 2020. "At‐Large Elections and Minority Representation in Local Government," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 717-733, July.
    4. Ali Fakih & Pascal L. Ghazalian, 2019. "Analyzing the Perceptions of Egyptian Youth about the Arab Spring," CIRANO Working Papers 2019s-21, CIRANO.
    5. Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant & Erin Tolley & Jeffrey Penney, 2016. "Race And Gender Affinities In Voting: Experimental Evidence," Working Paper 1370, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    6. ENDO Yuya & ONO Yoshikuni, 2021. "Gender Stereotypes among Japanese Voters," Discussion papers 21061, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    7. Karen O. Caballero Armendariz & Ben Farrer & Monica Martinez, 2020. "Badge of Courage or Sign of Criminality? Experimental Evidence for How Voters Respond to Candidates Who Were Arrested at a Protest," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2203-2219, October.
    8. Varun Karekurve‐Ramachandra & Alexander Lee, 2020. "Do Gender Quotas Hurt Less Privileged Groups? Evidence from India," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 757-772, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:52:y:2008:i:3:p:554-569. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.