Affiliations: [a] College of Graduate Business and Management,
University of Phoenix, USA | [b] Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University
of Mississippi, USA | 601 West 113th Street, #12G New York, NY 10025, USA | Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Center for Population
Research, University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848,
USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: David A. Swanson,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Mississippi, University,
MS 38677-1848, USA. E-mail: dswanson@olemiss.edu
Abstract: Although not originally intended as such, the US census has become a "Commons" in
which private benefits are gained at the expense of public costs. The historical
development of the census as a Commons first clearly emerged with the release of
the 1970 census results, and since that time contentious litigation over census
undercount error has become a standard part of the decennial census landscape.
Political battles within the federal government have gone hand-in-hand with
these litigation activities. They culminated with a Supreme Court decision on
the legality of statistically adjusting census 2000 counts for estimated
undercount error. As these battles raged, professional interest in providing
methodological fixes for net census undercount error increased while public
participation in the census generally declined. This paper examines the history
behind these legal battles, the legislative acts, and judicial decisions that
led to the 16th Amendment and the loss of the careful balance between public
costs and private benefits crafted by the Founding Fathers in Article I of the
Constitution. The paper identifies the role that historical actions played in
making the census into a Commons, thereby setting the stage for modern day
census litigation and other forms of conflict. We observe that as a Commons, the
census is facing a potential collapse that cannot be prevented by methodological
developments. We conclude by noting that a course of political action may be the
best course for preventing such a collapse.
