ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the earlier concepts about electoral geography and introduces some new ones. There are three aspects of elections which interest geographers. First, geographers must seek to understand what geographical reasons, if any, prompted or encouraged a government to select a particular electoral method, and, when the method requires the division of the state into constituencies, to select particular boundaries. Second, geographers must seek to discover what geographical factors, if any, have contributed to the resulting electoral pattern. Lastly, geographers should be aware that governments, sensitive to electoral patterns, may seek to alter them by actions which will increase the government's popularity and at the same time alter the economic geography of some constituencies. The analysis of votes in national assemblies is based on the assumption that the representative votes in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the constituents.
