Bushmanders & Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate Electronic Maps and Census Date to Win Elections. Mark S. Monmonier

An excellent resource for reformers in this redistricting season. This well-reviewed book includes a chapter advocating proportional representation as the best means to represent our diversity. In addition it explains how computers (once thought to be the tool to eliminating gerrymanders) have wound up crafting them, the complicated relationship between race and representation, how the forms of political maps can function as distractions and hindrances to understanding their content, and alternative models of representation drawn from examples in Ohio, Massachusetts, and much of contemporary Europe. From University of Chicago Press (2001)

Challenges to Equality: Poverty and Race in America. Chester Hartman (editor)

This timely work provides multiple perspectives on many important current social issues -- integration and civil rights; President Clinton's race initiative; poverty; education; the environment; democratic participation; disability rights; corporate welfare; and others. The contributors includes such well-known public and academic figures as Julian Bond, Herbert Gans, James Loewen, Jonathan Kozol, Manning Marable, Howard Zinn, Benjamin DeMott, Frances Fox Piven, and Marian Wright Edelman. It contains a chapter on proportional representation by Douglas Amy, Fred McBride and Rob Richie. From M.E. Sharpe (2001)

Fair and Effective Representation.Mark E. Rush and Richard L. Engstrom

Two experts on political representation, voting rights, and the election process debate representation and minority rights, one the most pertinent issues of electoral reform. Mark E. Rush and Richard L. Engstrom, both of whom have headed the Section on Representation and Electoral Systems of the American Political Science Association, discuss the promises and pitfalls of converting from the traditional single-member district to some form of proportional representation. The authors also examine the shortcomings of the existing methods of elections (such as gerrymandering, low turnout, voter apathy, and underrepresentation of minorities and women) and investigate the extent to which proportional representation adheres to the Founders' vision of representation. With an introduction by political scientist Bruce E. Cain. From Rowman & Littlefield (2001)

The single transferable vote (STV), termed choice voting by many American electoral reformers, has typically been the preferred proportional representation system in the United States and United Kingdom. Yet relatively little is known about its actual workings. Gathering leading experts on STV from around the world to discuss the examples they know best, this book represents the first systematic cross-national study of STV, with a focus on elections in Australia, Ireland and Malta. Rather than seeing electoral institutions in purely mechanical terms, the collection of essays in this volume shows that the effects of electoral system may be contingent on other factors rather than automatic. From University of Michigan Press(2000)

Most Americans take for granted their right to vote, whether they choose to exercise it or not. But the history of suffrage in the U.S. is, in fact, the story of a struggle to achieve this right by successive waves of different classes of voters, defined by differences in such areas as wealth, race, gender, age and citizenship. Historian Alexander Keyssar explores the evolution of suffrage over the course of the nation's history, exploring the conditions under which American democracy has expanded and contracted over the years. From Basic Books (2000)

Elections as Instruments of Democracy. G. Bingham Powell, Jr.

In this book, a leading scholar of comparative politics asks crucial questions about modern democracies. Of the two great visions of democracy--the majoritarian, winner-take-all vision and the proportional  representation, consensus model - which best serves as an instrument of democracy and policy-making? When and why does each vision succeed or fail? G. Bingham Powell examines over 150 elections in twenty democracies over the past quarter century to arrive at important and sometimes surprising conclusions, one of which is that national legislatures elected by proportional representation are more likely to enact policies supported by majorities in the electorate. From Yale University Press (2000)

A Right to Representation: Proportional Election Systems for the Twenty-first Century . Kathleen Barber 

In this book, an outgrowth of her earlier Proportional Representation and Electoral Reform in Ohio, Dr. Barber explores the origins of proportional representation (PR) systems, explains their use and adaptability, and supplies empirical evidence of how they actually worked in practice in five Ohio cities that used the choice voting method of proportional representation in the 1900's. From Ohio State University Press (2000)

Behind the Ballot Box:  A Citizen's Guide to Voting Systems. Douglas J. Amy

A comprehensive and objective guide to all voting methods, from variations of winner-take-all elections to variations of proportional representation, with a particular focus on semi-proportional systems, and the plurality/majority voting systems that are currently used in the U.S.  The book includes a set of  criteria for evaluating voting systems, an explanation of the workings of each system, and a discussion of their various political advantages and disadvantages. From Praeger Publishing (2000)

The U.S. House of Representatives: Reform or Rebuild? Joseph F. Zimmerman and Wilma Rule (editors)

The unrepresentativeness of the U.S. House of Representatives--in terms of ethnicity, gender, race, and socio--economic status--and its nearly closed system for election have generated questions about the legitimacy and authority of the House as an institution which "represents" citizens and whether House membership should mirror directly the diverse population of the nation. This essay collection examines the causes of the unrepresentative character of the House and offers recommendations to make it a more representative deliberative body. The single-member district system is examined as a major causal factor of the unrepresentativeness, and alternative electoral systems--single-transferable vote types of proportional representation, cumulative voting, and limited voting--are explored. From Praeger Press (2000)