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On the other hand, a 35,000-member House would undoubtedly be too large for more than a small handful of important members to actually debate anything. Think of
by lainga 8y ago
On the other hand, a 35,000-member House would undoubtedly be too large for more than a small handful of important members to actually debate anything. Think of the PRC National People's Congress (setting aside that it would probably be powerless at any size..!), but 10 times as large: all the work in the 3,000-strong NPC is done by a standing committee of only 150.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People%27s_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People%27s_Congress
- monocasa 8y agoOh no... we'd have to more closely approximate a direct democracy in the part of the federal government that is supposed to be the most answerable to the people...
- monocasa 8y agoBut really, just because the extremely autocratic CCP decides to concentrate power, doesn't mean that that's your only option.
- bshanks 8y agoIt might be something structural that is general to all such situations; maybe when there is a very large number of 'ordinary legislators' there is a high probability of them becoming, over time, de facto powerless compared to party leadership.
- gowld 8y agoThe US already had de facto individually-powerless legislators -- The Republicans especially vote as a bloc whichever way party leadership declares.
- gowld 8y agoGood. The Federal Congress has too much power anyway. Power should devolve to the several States.
- elihu 8y agoAt that scale, they would have to abandon traditional oral parliamentary procedures and switch to a text-based threaded comment medium. Reddit and HN show that it's at least possible to have hundreds and occasionally thousands of people "talking at once" without collapsing into chaos. By comparison, I think most of us have had the experience of being in a conversation with a small group of people (or even one other person) and wanting to say something but not being given an opportunity to do so without seeming rude. This could have other advantages as well. No reason why any one bill should block any other bill; anything with N/2+1 upvotes is passed by the House. It would also be possible for representatives to remain in their home districts among their constituents.
- CPUstring 8y agoYou think a bunch of lawyers who got into their positions because they speak well will start writing in comment threads?