Assessing Partisan Gerrymandering in the 2016 Korean National Assembly Election Using Computer Simulations

Abstract

In this paper, I empirically assess the presence of partisan gerrymandering in the 2016 Korean National Assembly election redistricting using computer simulations. I create 1,000 computer simulated districting plans and compare them to the actual districting plan to assess the presence and the extent of partisan gerrymandering. I find no evidence of partisan gerrymandering. First, I find that the distribution of districts favorable to the two major parties at the time, the Saenuri and the Democratic Party, is within the range of the distributions of the computer-simulated plans. Second, I show that the average compactness of actual districts is superior to the average compactness of most of the simulated districting plans.