Jan

24

“Build a Bigger House”

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A friend forwarded me the following op-ed in the New York Times, “Build a Bigger House.”

WITH the Senate preparing to debate filibuster reform, now is a good time to consider a similarly daunting challenge to democratic representation in the House: its size. It’s been far too long since the House expanded to keep up with population growth and, as a result, it has lost touch with the public and been overtaken by special interests.

The authors go on to claim:

The result is that Americans today are numerically the worst-represented group of citizens in the country’s history. The average House member speaks for about 700,000 Americans. In contrast, in 1913 he represented roughly 200,000, a ratio that today would mean a House with 1,500 members — or 5,000 if we match the ratio the founders awarded themselves.

I last wrote about this issue on August 6, 2010. The movement to make our representative democracy more representative continues to grow.

Comments

One Response to ““Build a Bigger House””

  1. Josh on July 1st, 2011 6:20 am

    Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walter’s writes about the need for more representatives: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/01/3740426/dan-walters-true-reform-would.html

    NextCA.org includes the size of the legislature under their “Representation” section: http://www.nextca.org/topics/entry/representation

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