National Civic Review articles from September 1995

National Civic Review archives from September 1995

Election systems and representative democracy: reflections on the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (includes related article)
September 22, 1995... The Voting Rights Act, as orginally conceived and through its various amendments, has proved an extraordinarily effective tool for eliminating the most egregious barriers to, an abuses of, minorities' rights to register and vote. But access to...

Tenuous interpretation: Sections 2 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
September 22, 1995... The Supreme Court has vacillated in its interpretation of the key enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act, suggesting that there never has been any clear consensus on the extension of voting rights. Minority vote dilution continues...

Shaw, Miller and the districting thicket.
September 22, 1995... Recent Supreme Court decisions involving majority-minority electoral districts have introduced new uncertainty into the political boundary-drawing process, particularly with regard to the relative importance applied to such factors as...

Cumulative voting as a remedy in voting rights cases.
September 22, 1995... While majority-minority districts are bitterly litigated in the courts, a "quiet revolution" is taking place in jurisdictions across the nation employing the alternative system of cumulative voting. Having found in April of 1994 that...

Cumulative voting as an alternative to districting: an exit survey of sixteen Texas communities.
September 22, 1995... Citizens participating in cumulative voting elections generally agree the system is fair, permitting all groups an opportunity to elect representatives of their choice. No electoral reform, however, can take the place of effective voter...

Why women should be included in the Voting Rights Act.
September 22, 1995... It is time to correct the ongoing injustice of the under representation of women in governing institutions at all levels, perpetrated by the strenuous promotion of single-member districts. Without an appropriate remedy, they'll promise of the...

What do you do when reformed government doesn't work?: the Cincinnati experience.
September 22, 1995... A recent campaign to abandon council-manager government in Cincinnati, Ohio demonstrates that the democratically elected city council remains the key to preserving and maintaining the vigor of the council-manager plan. When councils fall to...

D.C.-area C.O.G.: air pollution tops Capitol's environmental woes. (Council of Governments)
September 22, 1995... Air pollution is the metropolitan Washington, D.C. region's number one environmental concern, according to a poll released by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Nearly 40 percent of residents and 42 percent of businesses...

Report details frequent movement in and out of poverty.
September 22, 1995... For large numbers of people, poverty is characterized by continuous changes in duration, intensity and frequency, according to a Census Bureau report. Substantially more persons were poor for two or more months than in an average month,...

Rail shipping regains prominence.
September 22, 1995... The Twin cities metropolitan area in Minnesota must locate a site for a new truck-to-train terminal facility to accommodate the expected growth in "intermodal" freight transportation. The intermodal share of the inter-city market is growing...

U.S. demographic update: good news and bad news.
September 22, 1995... A new report released by the United States Bureau of the Census provides a profile of the nation's social and economic status. Reproduced below are some important facts contained in the report, entitled How We're Changing, Demographic State...