Dilutive Drift: The Racial Impact of Low-Change Redistricting
Abstract
As America’s racial composition shifts, states that minimize changes to existing districts in successive redistricting cycles can entrench racial disparities in representation, a process I term dilutive drift. Using novel spatial measures of US House district change between successive congresses, I show that packing and cracking can occur passively, and not only through deliberate gerrymandering. States with long histories of racial exclusion, such as Alabama and Louisiana, make persistently fewer changes to their districts than other states. Minimal-change redistricting, I argue, can entrench unequal representation just as effectively as overt gerrymandering.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Electoral Systems and Political Participation
Gender Politics and Representation
Urban
Neighborhood
and Segregation Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Perspectives on Politics
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 810–833
- Publication date
- 12 January 2026
- Language
- EN