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The Park Place Economist

Abstract

Lani Guinier's proposals were neither radical nor undemocratic. In fact, cumulative voting is more efficient, democratic, and fair than the plurality rule single member district arrangement currently in use in most of the United States that Guinier's critics held up as the paragon of democracy. The importance of these qualities, especially to minorities in a pluralistic democracy, cannot be overstated. Efficient, democratic, and fair electoral systems prevent government from ignoring minority rights and interests by turning mere enfranchisement into empowerment, which in tum, affords minorities the same access to and proportionate power in America's social, economic, and political institutions.

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