Category: Politics
After charting the history of American parties in Congress, I decided to make a similar chart for Australia’s party history. For each federal election from the first in 1901 to the latest in 2016, the presence of each party is represented…
The chart below shows the history of American political parties in Congress, from the 1st (1789-91) through the 114th (2015-17). It is only part of the story of parties in the United States, as many have never won any seats at the federal level. These include the modern Libertarian…
Americans are used to electing our representatives from single-member districts. Since the 1970s, all members of the US House of Representatives have been elected this way. But in many cases prior to that, states elected some or all of their federal…
Let’s play a game of Contrast — between a multi-party system, the kind we could have with a few changes to our election laws (and no need for any amendments to the Constitution), and our existing two-party system. Let’s see…
It was interesting simply on the level of infographics to watch the BBC’s live coverage of last night’s election returns. Here are some of my impressions. For all the fanciness of the graphics you see on CNN, etc., there’s not…
The interactive graphic below shows the official annual military aid (in constant 2012 dollars) transferred from the US to each country in the Middle East and surrounding regions, from 1946 to 2012. Red circles are sized in proportion to the amount of aid for that country in that year.
In 2010, California adopted a “top-two” open primary system, in which the primary is nonpartisan and open to every voter. The top two vote-getters—regardless of party—advance to the general election. This was the result of voters’ approval of Proposition 14,…
In a 2005 paper, Thinking About the Political Impacts of the Electoral College, Bernard Grofman and Scott L. Feld review the arguments for and against reforming the Electoral College. As one who believes strongly in reforming the Electoral College (as…