Cheerful, beginning to end, look around rig (11)
I believe the answer is:
gerrymander
'cheerful beginning' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'end look around rig' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'end' is 'nde' which is within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gerrymander that I've seen before include "take unfair advantage?" , "Perform political chicanery with voting areas" , "Rearrange voting areas to benefit one party" , "Rig vote" , "Manipulate constituency boundaries" .)