Introduction
Applications of OR/MS to the representation and electoral processes are considered here. The narrower definition of politics is followed, denoting the theory and practice of managing political affairs in a party sense (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary 1951). In particular, applications to the following are considered:
Apportionment
Districting
Voting methods and logistics, and
Election analysis
Apportionment
This is the process of equitably assigning a fixed number of legislators to a lesser number of political subdivisions. In the United States, 435 congressional districts must be apportioned to 50 states with each state receiving at least one district. The method of rounding to an integer solution influences the political result.
Balinski and Young (1982) have provided an exceptional mathematical analysis of the issue along with an historical, nontechnical exposition. In 1791, following the first U.S. census, Jefferson and Hamilton proposed alternative methods for...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baker v. Carr. (1962). 369 U.S. 186.
Balinski, M. L., & Young, H. P. (1982). Fair representation. Meeting the ideal of one man, one vote. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Barkan, J. D., & Bruno, J. E. (1972). Operations research in planning political campaign strategies. Operations Research, 20, 925–941.
Beroggi, G. E. G. (2010). When O.R. becomes the law. OR/MS today, 37(3), 44–47.
Bozkaya, B., Erkut, E., & Laporte, G. (2003). A tabu search heuristic and adaptive memory procedure for political districting. European Journal of Operational Research, 144, 12–26.
Browdy, M. H. (1990). Computer models and post-Bandemer redistricting. Yale Law Journal, 99, 1379–1398.
Campbell, J. E., & Lewis-Beck, M. S. (2008). US presidential election forecasting: An introduction. International Journal of Forecasting, 24, 189–192.
Ernst, L. R. (1994). Apportionment methods for the house of representatives and the court challenges. Management Science, 40, 1207–1227.
Fishburn, P. C., & Little, J. D. C. (1988). An experiment in approval voting. Management Science, 34, 555–568.
Garfinkel, R. S., & Nemhauser, G. L. (1969). Optimal political districting by implicit enumeration techniques. Management Science, 16, B495–B508.
George, J. A., Lamar, B. W., & Wallace, C. A. (1997). Political district determination using large-scale network optimization. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 31, 11–28.
Hess, S. W. (1971). One-man one-vote and county political integrity: Apportion to satisfy both. Jurimetrics Journal, 11, 123–141.
Hess, S. W., Weaver, J. B., Seigfeldt, H. J., Whelan, J. N., & Zitlau, P. A. (1965). Nonpartisan political redistricting by computer. Operations Research, 13, 998–1006.
Hojati, M. (1996). Optimal political districting. Computers and Operations Research, 23(12), 1147–1161.
Kaplan, E., & Barnett, A. (2003). A new approach to estimating the probability of winning the presidency. Operations Research, 51(1), 32–40.
King, L. (2010). CNN television interview of associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, September 15.
Lewis-Beck, M. S. (2010). European election forecasting: An introduction. International Journal of Forecasting, 26, 9–10. Intro to special issue on election forecasting in Europe.
Mehrotra, A., Johnson, E. L., & Nemhauser, G. L. (1998). An optimization based heuristic for political districting. Operations Research, 44(8), 1100–1114.
Miniter, R. (1992). Running against the computer; Stephen Solarz and the technician-designed congressional district. The Washington Post, September 20, C5.
Nygreen, B. (1988). European assembly constituencies for Wales – Comparing of methods for solving a political districting problem. Mathematical Programming, 42, 159–169.
Regenwetter, M., & Grofman, B. (1998). Approval voting, Borda winners, and Condorcet winners: Evidence from seven elections. Management Science, 44(4), 520–533.
Savas, E. S., Lipton, H., & Burkholz, L. (1972). Implementation of an OR approach for forming efficient districts. Operations Research, 20, 46–48.
Shaw v. Hunt. (1996). 116 S. Ct. 1894, 135 L. Ed. 2d 207.
Shirabe, T. (2009). Districting modeling with exact contiguity constraints. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 36, 1053–1066.
Soberman, D., & Sadoulet, L. (2007). Campaign spending limits and political advertising. Management Science, 53(10), 1521–1532.
Van Biema, D. (1993). Snakes or ladders. Time, 12, 30–33.
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. (1951). Politics (p. 654). New York: Mirriam.
Wikipedia, Apportionment. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apportionment_%28politics%29
Williams, J. C. (2002). A zero-one programming model for contiguous land acquisition. Geographical Analysis, 34(4), 330–349.
Young, H. P. (1988). Measuring the compactness of legislative districts. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 13(1), 105–115.
Zoltners, A. A., & Sinha, P. (1983). Sales territory alignment: A review and model. Management Science, 29, 1237–1256.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Murphy, F.H., Hess, S.W., Wong-Martinez, C.G. (2013). Politics. In: Gass, S.I., Fu, M.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1153-7_766
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1153-7_766
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1137-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1153-7
eBook Packages: Business and Economics