# 10. Manipulate dimensions ## 10.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 10.5.3. Gerrymandering This involves the redrawing of districts to benefit politicians or political parties. The term derives from Governor Eldridge Gerry whose redistricting of Massachusetts resulted in one district that resembled a salamander. The practice no longer just applies to the configuring of district boundaries to the benefit of one party at the expense of another, but also refers to the rigging of electoral maps to favour incumbents. In the sense of a manipulative method, gerrymandering is an artificial restriction or extension of voting or decision making rights within an area or group, so as to minimise opposition from or maximise support for the manipulator. In national and local elections this is done by moving physical boundaries around to ensure that the maximum numbers of seats are won by the minimum number of the manipulator's candidates. It's such an old and obvious trick that it's amazing governments still get away with it, but they always have and still do. In Britain there is no doubt that the Northern Irish constituencies were gerrymandered. Until the recent past this happened in order to ensure that the Protestant land-owning population held a disproportionately large majority in any Parliament and could block attempts towards representation of Irish nationalists. More fundamentally in Britain, the "first past the post" electoral system certainly doesn't permit a truly democratic election. The only parties which express any desire to change the electoral system to allow proportional representation are those parties which are unlikely ever to gain power under the present electoral regime. Their votes are effectively wasted and this is despite a very sizeable proportion of the population wishing to see the system reformed into something more representative than the present system. In commerce a management can gerrymander a vote on some issue of working conditions by excluding part-time and contract personnel from a canvas of opinion. A union can do the same by recognising only its member's opinions and ignoring non-union workers. There are numerous opportunities to artificially redraw boundaries in ways which seems perfectly reasonable but which are really just manipulative gerrymandering.