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79 Nat'l Civic Rev. 1 (1990)

handle is hein.journals/natmnr79 and id is 1 raw text is: NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW Building Successful Communities Volume 79, Number 1 January-February 1990 VOTING PATTERNS AND ALTERNATIVE ELECTORAL SYSTEMS When the first issue of the REVIEW rolled off the press in 1912, the League's reform agenda was just beginning to acquire support and influence. A central feature of turn-of-the-century refrom was the nonpartisan, at-large election of the local policy-making body. Today, except in our largest jurisdictions, nonpartisanship is an assumed feature of local elections. Since the 1960s, however, the at-large system, originally promoted in part as a remedy to parochial party machine influence, has been increasingly under fire. This issue of the REVIEW questions the effectiveness of our approach to representational redress: by and large, the imposition of the single-member district. Solutions to the problem of fair representation may be found in both structure-alternative elec- toral systems-and governance, which implies cooperation under existing conditions. Editor's Comment..................................................................3 Voting Patterns in a Tri-Ethic Community: Conflict or Cohesion? by Charles S. Bullock and Susan A. MacManus................. 5 Observation of intergroup conflict and cohesion with regard to city council elections in Austin, Texas over a ten-year period suggests that while blacks and Hispanics often share candidate preferences, the politics are not universally minority versus white. As our communities become more ethnically and racially diverse-whether central or suburban-the importance of building coalitions cannot be overstated. The frequency and degree to which blacks, whites and browns coalesce to support the same candidate has implications for the possibility and effectiveness of rainbow coalitions. Alternative Local Electoral Systems byJosephF. Zimmerman..................................................23 In the absence of ideality, communities-and indeed Congress and the Justice Department-have taken action to enhance the representative- ness of local policy-making bodies. In spite ofwidespread preference for the single-member district over the at-large system in communities where inequitable representation can be historically demonstrated, electoral reformers have other options with proven track records. This article reviews the various electoral systems with which communities have experimented during this century and offers some alternatives to winner takes all.

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