# Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation - Hardcover

by **Ismar Volic** (Author)

**How we can repair our democracy by rebuilding the mechanisms that power it**

What's the best way to determine what most voters want when multiple candidates are running? What's the fairest way to allocate legislative seats to different constituencies? What's the least distorted way to draw voting districts? Not the way we do things now. Democracy is mathematical to its very foundations. Yet most of the methods in use are a historical grab bag of the shortsighted, the cynical, the innumerate, and the outright discriminatory. _Making Democracy Count_ sheds new light on our electoral systems, revealing how a deeper understanding of their mathematics is the key to creating civic infrastructure that works for everyone.

In this timely guide, Ismar Volic empowers us to use mathematical thinking as an objective, nonpartisan framework that rises above the noise and rancor of today's divided public square. Examining our representative democracy using powerful clarifying concepts, Volic shows why our current voting system stifles political diversity, why the size of the House of Representatives contributes to its paralysis, why gerrymandering is a sinister instrument that entrenches partisanship and disenfranchisement, why the Electoral College must be rethought, and what can work better and why. Volic also discusses the legal and constitutional practicalities involved and proposes a road map for repairing the mathematical structures that undergird representative government.

_Making Democracy Count_ gives us the concrete knowledge and the confidence to advocate for a more just, equitable, and inclusive democracy.

### Author Biography

**Ismar Volic** is professor of mathematics and director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy at Wellesley College. His work has appeared in publications such as _The Hill_, _Cognoscenti_, and _Education Week_.

**Number of Pages:** 408

**Dimensions:** 1.3 x 9.3 x 6.1 IN

**Publication Date:** April 02, 2024

## Details

- **Price:** 32.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 32.00 USD | In stock |

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- Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation - Hardcover
- Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation - Hardcover

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