October 2019, Week 5


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 		 [This is an excellent and engaging read that exposes the
structural flaws in the US government system and provides tangible,
achievable proposals to address them, writes reviewer Frazier.]




 Erica Frazier. 
 September 3, 2019
LSE Review of Books

	* [https://portside.org/node/21333/printable/print]

 _ This is an excellent and engaging read that exposes the structural
flaws in the US government system and provides tangible, achievable
proposals to address them, writes reviewer Frazier. _ 



Rethinking US Election Law
Unskewing the System
Steven Mulroy
Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 978 1 78811 750 0

The United States has come to a political crossroads. Few Americans
have favourable opinions of Congress
[https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx]. There is not
support for an alternative political group. Rampant gerrymandering
means politicians choose their voters, and the Supreme Court has once
again declined
to intervene. Steven Mulroy’s
book, _Rethinking US Election Law: Unskewing the System_, is an
excellent response to what feels to many like a total impasse,
exposing a number of structural problems as well as tangible,
realistic proposals to address them.

writing numerous articles over the years and serving as a voting
rights litigator, elected official, election reform advocate and a
Professor of Law at the University of Memphis. These varied
experiences manifest in the book’s comprehensive considerations of
clear, authoritative style. Each chapter is concise and meticulously
sourced and footnoted for additional reference. Mulroy also avoids the
pitfall of focusing on American exceptionalism to the point of
ignoring instructive lessons from other countries. The book features a
well-organised index and chapters with straightforward titles, making
textbook students fear, but a good resource for anyone interested in
American governmental dysfunction and ideas for improvement.

Overall, the book follows a fairly classic structure of identifying
and outlining problems then proposing solutions. The first half of the
book highlights the ways in which the popular will is systematically
thwarted. According to Mulroy, the electoral college, internal Senate
undemocratic outcomes. The evidence bears this out. The US is
He argues these flaws not only _can_ be remedied, but that there would
be no need for a constitutional amendment to do so.

College follows the popular will, reforms Senate rules that lead to
obstructionist hang-ups and establishes nonpartisan commissions to end
gerrymandering. Chapters Seven and Eight describe the potential
benefits of changing the chaotic US electoral system to one based on
should state here that I work at FairVote, an organisation advocating
the implementation of RCV across the US.)

no candidate reaches an outright majority, the candidates with the
lowest vote shares are eliminated and their votes transferred to the
thresholds for victory are lower, and that as well as eliminating
candidates with the lowest vote shares and redistributing their votes,
a winning candidate’s votes in excess of the electoral threshold are

improve elections in the US. The book claims that with the
implementation of RCV, there would be improved competition among
that while coupling single-winner RCV with nonpartisan redistricting
commissions could help combat some of the democratic deficit in the
transitional step towards multi-winner RCV and the benefits it

While Congress is becoming increasingly diverse
it still falls short in terms of reflecting the varied political,
ethnic, racial, gender and sexual identities and orientations of the
American people. Mulroy claims that rather than relying on a single
representative to reflect the will of thousands of diverse Americans
elected via RCV, would provide more proportional representation for
all Americans while undermining the practice of gerrymandering. The
author is in good company here. Other prominent scholars of American
politics have also advocated instituting multi-member districts to
solve gerrymandering and its attendant problems. The LSE USAPP blog
features one such case study of the state of Maryland.

While Mulroy underscores the potential for single and multi-winner RCV
to resolve problems at the national level, he identifies state and
local governments as the primary testing grounds for such reforms. The
state of Maine’s experience seems to support this conception of
the state’s largest city and has since spread to the election of
the US, though Minneapolis uses both systems in parallel to select
representatives for its Park and Recreation Board.

Since the book is premised on making changes without the need for
constitutional amendments, there are limits to what it deems
‘conceivable’. Those interested in more radical changes – such
as guaranteeing all Americans a fundamental right to vote, or
abolishing the Senate outright – might find the book somewhat
discussing _who_ is allowed access to the ballot box or _how_. While
acknowledging representation in the US Senate is inherently skewed due
to demographic trends, it limits its recommendations to improving the
body’s internal workings, such as killing the filibuster. Shifting
senatorial elections to a more proportional system via two-winner RCV
is written off as extremely difficult to achieve and offering little
though unlikely outcome of the transition from single to multi-winner
RCV. These characteristics do not detract from the book’s overall
value, however. They are likely due to the author’s perspective
developed through long involvement in the fields of voting rights and
electoral reform, and highlight the need for more research and

On the whole, _Rethinking US Election Law_ is a timely, well-written
argument in favour of electoral reform in the United States. It
advances achievable solutions that could go a long way towards solving
the country’s current democratic breakdown, and is an excellent read
for anyone interested in ‘unskewing the system’.

ERICA FRAZIER is Research Manager at the nonprofit nonpartisan
electoral reform group FairVote. She received a joint PhD in political
science from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and the
Université d’Orléans, France. Her current research interests
include electoral systems, political economy and political discourses
and movements in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland.

_Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position
Economics. _








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