Editing Gerrymandering (section)

==Gerrymandering in Different Voting systems==
===First-past-the-post===
{{Main|First-past-the-post voting}}

Gerrymandering is most likely to emerge in majoritarian systems, where the country is divided into several voting districts and the candidate with the most votes wins the district. If the ruling party is in charge of drawing the district lines, it can abuse the fact that in a majoritarian system all votes that do not go to the winning candidate are essentially irrelevant to the composition of a new government. Even though gerrymandering can be used in other voting systems, it has the most significant impact on voting outcomes in first-past-the-post systems.<ref>{{cite web |title=Majoritarian electoral systems are more prone to gerrymandering than proportional systems |url=http://www.democraticaudit.com/2016/06/01/majoritarian-electoral-systems-are-more-prone-to-gerrymandering-than-proportional-systems/ |website=Democratic Audit |date=1 June 2016}}</ref> Partisan redrawing of district lines is particularly harmful to democratic principles in majoritarian two-party systems. In general, two party systems tend to be more polarized than proportional systems.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Feuerherd |first1=Peter |title=Is Gerrymandering to Blame for Our Polarized Politics? |url=https://daily.jstor.org/is-gerrymandering-to-blame-for-our-polarized-politics/ |website=JSTOR Daily |date=19 March 2018}}</ref> Possible consequences of gerrymandering in such a system can be an amplification of polarization in politics and a lack of representation of minorities, as a large part of the constituency is not represented in policy making. However, not every state using a first-past-the-post system is being confronted with the negative impacts of gerrymandering. Some countries, such as Canada and the UK, authorize non-partisan organizations to set constituency boundaries in attempt to prevent gerrymandering.<ref>{{cite web |title=Solving the Problem of Partisan Gerrymandering |url=https://www.conference-board.org/publications/TCB-ced-solving-gerrymandering-problem |website=Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board |publisher=CED |access-date=15 May 2019}}</ref>

===Proportional systems===
{{Main|Proportional representation}}
The introduction of a proportional system is often proposed as the most effective solution to partisan gerrymandering.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Yglesias |first1=Matthew |title=The real fix for gerrymandering is proportional representation |url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/11/16453512/gerrymandering-proportional-representation |website=Vox |access-date=15 May 2019 |date=11 October 2017}}</ref> In such systems, the entire constituency is being represented proportionally to their votes. Even though voting districts can be part of a proportional system, the redrawing of district lines would not benefit a party, as those districts are mainly of organizational value, except where the [[district magnitude]] is small or a system which favors larger parties, such as [[D'Hondt method|d'Hondt]], is used.  For example, instead of having three districts, a single large district would exist where the top three candidates in the election would all represent the district.  It would be harder to gerrymander a district where there are multiple winners from that district.

===Mixed systems===
{{Main|Mixed electoral system}}
In mixed systems that use proportional and majoritarian voting principles, the usage of gerrymandering is a constitutional obstacle that states have to deal with. In mixed systems, the advantage a political actor can potentially gain from redrawing district lines is much less than in majoritarian systems. In addition, voting districts are mostly being used to avoid that elected parliamentarians are getting too detached from their constituency. The principle that determines the representation in parliament is usually the proportional aspect of the voting system. Seats in parliament are being allocated to each party in accordance to the proportion of their overall votes. In most mixed systems, winning a voting district merely means that a candidate is guaranteed a seat in parliament but does not expand a party's share in the overall seats.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wattenberg |first1=Martin P. |last2=Shugart |first2=Matthew Soberg |title=Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: A Definition and Typology |date=6 February 2003 |doi=10.1093/019925768X.001.0001 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-160024-1 }}</ref> Gerrymandering can still be used to manipulate the outcome in voting districts. In most democracies with a mixed system, non-partisan institutions are in charge of drawing district lines and gerrymandering is a less common phenomenon.