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> This poses a critical problem for democratic legitimacy primarily because of the Senate. Those four largest states have only eight senators, while the 34 smal
by gedy 5y ago
> This poses a critical problem for democratic legitimacy primarily because of the Senate. Those four largest states have only eight senators, while the 34 smallest states have a supermajority of 68
But this was exactly the original point of the Senate vs House of Representatives, e.g. balance the powers of states so a few/large could not dominate?
- mpalmer 5y agoSo now instead of a few states controlling a disproportionate amount of political power, it's the case that relatively few voters benefit from the power imbalance. Is that better? Regardless, the solution to add more states addresses both problems.
- SubiculumCode 5y agoNot exactly. The purpose is to recognize the sovereignty and equality of States joining to form a Republic. If a State decides to split into several smaller separately governed States, those new States should join the Republic receiving full representation as sovereign and equal States. That is, the House represent people while the Senate represents States.
- cafard 5y agoIndeed. But the disproportion between most and least populous state has increased considerably since the first census. Then it was about 125 thousand in Virginia (including what is now Kentucky) v. 11 thousand in Delaware. Now California has 37 million people and Wyoming has 568 thousand (2010 census).