Paradoxes of Political Reform: Congressional Redistricting In Florida

Abstract

The reforms to the redistricting process in Florida, catalyzed by advances in information technology, enabled a dramatic increase in public participation in the redistricting process. This reform process in Florida can be considered a partial success: The adopted plan implements one the the most efficient observable trade-offs among the reformer’s criteria, primarily along the lines of racial representation by creating an additional Black-majority district in the form of the current 5th Congressional District. This does not mean, however, that reform was entirely successful. The adopted plan is efficient, but is atypical of the plans submitted by the legislature and public. Based on the pattern of public submissions, and on contextual information, we suspect the adopted plan was drawn for partisan motivations. The public preference and good-government criteria might be better served by the selection of the other efficient plans – that were much more competitive, and less biased, at the cost of a reduction of the majority-minority seat.