The health of democracies, of whatever type and range, depends on a wretched technical detail-electoral procedure. All the rest is secondary.' In the aftermath of the decennial census, reapportionment and its wayward stepchild gerrymandering have again become topics of the hour. In 1991 or 1992, based on the new census, state legislatures will establish new boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts. 2 In order to conform to the constitutional mandate that districts have equal populations 3-"one person, one vote" 4-states will have to redraw district lines to account for population shifts that have accumulated over the past ten years. Yet reapportionment, made necessary by fidelity to democratic principles, also will bring with it gerrymandering. Gerrymandering, broadly speaking, is any manipulation of district lines for partisan purposes. 5 There are different varieties of gerrymandering, including racial gerrymandering, 6 remedial racial gerrymandering, 7 and collusive bipartisan gerrymandering. 8 Partisan gerrymandering, the most common kind

for taking time to discuss some of the questions raised by this article. Chris Kline furnished valuable research assistance. The work was subsidized by the Kirkland & Ellis research fund of Northwestern University. Thanks and full absolutions to all. 1. This quotation has been widely attributed to J.P. Morgan, who said "[a]ny man who has to ask about the annual upkeep of a yacht can't afford one."

No abstract

This article seeks to examine the common view that widespread availability of firearms is a major cause, or even the principal cause, of high American rates of homicide. Reasonably accurate data as to both homicide rates and the acquisition and ownership of firearms in the United States are available back to the mid-1940s. These data do not show a correlation over the long term between the distribution of firearms in the population at large and homicide rates. The two variables do cross occasionally, but they do not do so consistently. Rather, the trend in the period 1973-1997 was one of very large increases in firearms accompanied by essentially flat, even diminishing, homicide rates. That is the general rule for the period since the end of World War II to date.

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