ABSTRACT
Despite the abundance of study and interest, we are far from an un derstanding of the political causes and consequences of the various appor tionment patterns. Since most battles over Congressional and state legisla tive apportionment are fought out in the states, we must look to the state scenes for an understanding of apportionment. Most of this volume consists of individual case studies of the apportionment problem. This is an exercise in comparative state politics, a field in which systematic study is relatively new. The student who begins to dig below the surface in this field is likely to decide that there are fifty different political systems, offer ing no basis for comparison. We are interested in developing theories about apportionment and tracing the political patterns that make com parison possible. For that reason we have asked some of the same ques tions in state after state, and we have tried to summarize the answers in this introductory chapter.
