4 ms·

A key thing to keep in mind is that the US is one of the oldest among modern democracies, and the Constitution and the way the government was structured was ent

A key thing to keep in mind is that the US is one of the oldest among modern democracies, and the Constitution and the way the government was structured was entirely novel at the time. Other countries then had the mistakes of the US to learn from when implementing their own democratic systems.

giantg2 6y ago
We also have to note that the current implementation in not the way it was designed.
- crooked-v 6y ago
  Quite a lot of that also comes down to bad timing: the system was designed for a mostly-agrarian population with a relatively small urban class and inherent logistical limitations on maximum population density, and then the Industrial Revolution came along and upended literally everyone's expectations about how population centers, the economy, wealth distribution, etc would continue to work for the foreseeable future.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    It's seems that just about any system of government has issues with citizen/subject contentment or efficiency once becomes large and diverse. I agree that representation is lacking. I can't get an intelligent response from my reps, if I even get a response at all.
    - crooked-v 6y ago
      You may be interested to hear that those limits in the House of Representatives are actually entirely artificial because of a measure passed in 1929 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule), and that there's an ongoing effort to increase the number so that each more closely reflects their constituents (https://twitter.com/uncapthehouse https://twitter.com/uncapthehouse).
      - giantg2 6y ago
        Yeah, I was aware of that. As the representation goes up (number of voting members) the efficiency/effectiveness tends to go down. Seems like a lose-lose scenario. I think a better scenario is to follow the original intent of the 10th ammendment and leave the states to provide most of the laws (smaller populations should result in better representation). Sadly it seems that just about anything can be shoehorned into the federal perview with the right judge. For example, growing your own wheat, on your own land, for you own consumption can be restricted by the federal government because the fact that you no longer have to buy your wheat impacts the interstate commerce of the wheat market.

giantg2 6y ago

We also have to note that the current implementation in not the way it was designed.

crooked-v 6y ago
Quite a lot of that also comes down to bad timing: the system was designed for a mostly-agrarian population with a relatively small urban class and inherent logistical limitations on maximum population density, and then the Industrial Revolution came along and upended literally everyone's expectations about how population centers, the economy, wealth distribution, etc would continue to work for the foreseeable future.
- giantg2 6y ago
  It's seems that just about any system of government has issues with citizen/subject contentment or efficiency once becomes large and diverse. I agree that representation is lacking. I can't get an intelligent response from my reps, if I even get a response at all.
  - crooked-v 6y ago
    You may be interested to hear that those limits in the House of Representatives are actually entirely artificial because of a measure passed in 1929 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule), and that there's an ongoing effort to increase the number so that each more closely reflects their constituents (https://twitter.com/uncapthehouse https://twitter.com/uncapthehouse).
    - giantg2 6y ago
      Yeah, I was aware of that. As the representation goes up (number of voting members) the efficiency/effectiveness tends to go down. Seems like a lose-lose scenario. I think a better scenario is to follow the original intent of the 10th ammendment and leave the states to provide most of the laws (smaller populations should result in better representation). Sadly it seems that just about anything can be shoehorned into the federal perview with the right judge. For example, growing your own wheat, on your own land, for you own consumption can be restricted by the federal government because the fact that you no longer have to buy your wheat impacts the interstate commerce of the wheat market.