This book is the most up-to-date treatment of voting rights law and the numerous controversies surrounding minority representation. The authors have extensive firsthand experience in both the legal battles and the scholarly examination of these issues.

Introduction; 1. The right to vote and the right to representation; 2. The evolution of a vote dilution standard through 1986; 3. The vote dilution standard in the post-Gingles era: clarifications and complications in the lower courts; 4. Defining and measuring racially polarized voting and other elements of the totality of the circumstances; 5. Vote dillution in single-memberdistricts and other issues of the 1990s; 6. The voting rights act and the realistic politics of second best: an optimistic look to the future; Index.