3 ms·

>Imagine if we had 10000+ congressmen, it would much much harder to buy influence or lobby. The votes would eventually start to resemble the will of the people.

>Imagine if we had 10000+ congressmen, it would much much harder to buy influence or lobby. The votes would eventually start to resemble the will of the people. I agree, but there would be interesting ramifications. Almost like direct democracy but not quite there. So, essentially you have to earn the right to vote. Very close to what founders thought who should be voting. Mind blown!

padobson 9y ago
The Reapportionment Act of 1929[0] is the culprit for this problem. Up until then, the size of the house grew with the population of the country. It was one of a series of early 20th century foundational changes to American government that opened us up for the legalized corruption we're suffering from now. The 17th amendment[1] is another, which allowed for the direct election (and thus hyper politicization) of Senators. With 50 states, the country would still have 100 senators, but special interest groups would have to write checks to thousands of state assembly members to influence the election of Senators, rather than just writing a few dozen to influence the Senators directly. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reapportionment_Act_of_1929 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reapportionment_Act_of_1929 [1]https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am17.html https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am17.html
- thoth 9y ago
  >The 17th amendment[1] is another, which allowed for the direct election (and thus hyper politicization) of Senators. The time before the 17th Amendment wasn't exactly all roses, that was the age of outright bribery of state legislatures for Senate seats. William Clark's famous quote "I never bought a man who wasn't for sale" was about this and the surrounding corruption of his election brought the 17th Amendment around.[0] Listen to the 6th episode of the Constitutional podcast for some extra background, it is very interesting. Some states really wanted this because they were unable to even elect Senators due to political parties of the time simply not agreeing on anybody.[1] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Clark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Clark [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/constitutional/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/constitutional/
thucydides 9y ago
I suspect the number of influential representatives in a body is something like sqrt(n). When Pericles lived, the Athenian assembly was similarly large but only a handful were consistently influential (like Pericles)

padobson 9y ago

The Reapportionment Act of 1929[0] is the culprit for this problem. Up until then, the size of the house grew with the population of the country. It was one of a series of early 20th century foundational changes to American government that opened us up for the legalized corruption we're suffering from now. The 17th amendment[1] is another, which allowed for the direct election (and thus hyper politicization) of Senators. With 50 states, the country would still have 100 senators, but special interest groups would have to write checks to thousands of state assembly members to influence the election of Senators, rather than just writing a few dozen to influence the Senators directly. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reapportionment_Act_of_1929 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reapportionment_Act_of_1929 [1]https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am17.html https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am17.html

thoth 9y ago
>The 17th amendment[1] is another, which allowed for the direct election (and thus hyper politicization) of Senators. The time before the 17th Amendment wasn't exactly all roses, that was the age of outright bribery of state legislatures for Senate seats. William Clark's famous quote "I never bought a man who wasn't for sale" was about this and the surrounding corruption of his election brought the 17th Amendment around.[0] Listen to the 6th episode of the Constitutional podcast for some extra background, it is very interesting. Some states really wanted this because they were unable to even elect Senators due to political parties of the time simply not agreeing on anybody.[1] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Clark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Clark [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/constitutional/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/constitutional/

thucydides 9y ago

I suspect the number of influential representatives in a body is something like sqrt(n). When Pericles lived, the Athenian assembly was similarly large but only a handful were consistently influential (like Pericles)