Who Counts? Non-Citizen Residents, Spatial Sorting, and Malapportionment

Journal
British Journal of Political Science
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2025-04
Author(s)
;
DOI
Abstract
Existing research argues that malapportionment primarily favours rural areas, resulting in conservative biases of electoral systems. In this paper, we provide a new perspective on the study of apportionment processes by identifying the institutional design under which malapportionment may favour other regions. Because of the geographical sorting of non-citizen residents, we argue that regions with high shares of non-citizen residents benefit from population-based apportionment, whereas the spatial sorting of non-citizens does not affect malapportionment in the case of citizen-based apportionment. Empirically, we use sub-national data from ten advanced democracies to forward evidence that differences in apportionment mechanisms and district-level shares of non-citizen residents systematically influence malapportionment. Our findings suggest that the impact of malapportionment on political representation and public policies may be more heterogeneous than previously thought.
Language
English (United States)
Keywords
malapportionment
electoral systems
representation
cleavages
immigration
Refereed
Yes
Volume
55
URL