Political Numeracy: Mathematical Perspectives on Our Chaotic ConstitutionFrom the impossibility of a perfectly democratic vote to a clarifying model for affirmative action debates, constitutional law professor and math enthusiast Michael Meyerson "provides an engaging and unusual perspective on the no-man's land between mathematics and the law" (John Allen Paulos). In thoroughly accessible and entertaining terms, Meyerson shows how the principle of probability influenced the outcomes of the O. J. Simpson trials; makes a convincing case for the mathematical virtues of the electoral college; uses game theory to explain the federal government's shifting balance of power; relates the concept of infinity to the heated abortion debate; and uses topology and chaos theory to explain how our Constitution has successfully survived social and political change. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Preface | 11 |
The Ugliest Number in the Constitution | 16 |
Logic Healthy and Ill | 23 |
Majority Rules | 48 |
The Positive Value of Consensus | 71 |
The First Veto | 82 |
What Does Equality Equal? | 91 |
Infinity and the Constitution | 148 |
The Incomplete Constitution | 162 |
Constitutional Chaos | 185 |
The Mathematics of Limits | 209 |
The Limits of Mathematics | 217 |
Notes | 223 |
Permissions | 277 |
279 | |