Redistricting: Drawing Power with a Map

This year the states are undertaking their constitutional duty of “redistricting”—drawing new borders and creating new constituencies for politicians—because of the 1990 census. At the congressional level, some states gained seats and some lost them, but only the few states with a single representative will escape the need to draw new district lines to reflect shifting population patterns. Thus, redistricting could be a major impetus for changing the makeup of Congress and state legislatures. But because politicians put their own survival first, redistricting generally serves to preserve the status quo.