Published May 27, 2026
Republicans’ advantage in this cycle’s redistricting wars has prompted new consideration of alternatives to America’s traditional single-member House districts. A system employing proportional representation could halt gerrymandering — and the damage it does to representative democracy — in its tracks. But this would need to be implemented with care. The wrong approach could create new problems as bad as the one it seeks to solve.
Gerrymandering is a massive problem in a democratic republic. Since laws are passed by the people’s representatives, rather than by the people themselves, simply possessing the right to vote is not enough. Those votes must also translate into legislative majorities for the people’s desires to be carried out.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a globally recognized expert on American elections and policy as well as global populism.
