The Measure of a Nation by Howard Steven Friedman

Author:Howard Steven Friedman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prometheus Books

Moreover, the distortion gravely undermines the whole purpose of the House of Representatives, which was to represent the national distribution of the population. Today, even that is failing: Wyoming, with its population of 563,000 has the same number of representatives as Montana and Delaware with populations 60 percent and 75 percent larger, respectively. Rhode Island's population is only about 6 percent larger than Montana's, yet it has twice the number of representatives in the House. This issue is most acute for the less populous states that just reach or just miss the threshold for receiving an additional apportionment.

While it is somewhat impractical to grow the House of Representatives at the same rate as the nation's population, it is nevertheless the case that America's rate of national representation is on a completely different scale from that of its international competitors. Among our competitor nations, the average level of national representation (including both houses for bicameral systems and just the single house for the three unicameral systems of Greece, South Korea, and Portugal) is about one representative for every 85,000 people. The United States is thus nearly seven times less representative than the competition and more than three times less representative than the next closest competitor, Japan.37

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