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To Fix the U.S. Congress, Make It Bigger. Much Bigger. (2018)
- blue1 3y agoTrying to fix a rather large and mostly dysfunctional parliament, Italy recently tried the opposite solution: it slashed the number of representatives. It did not go well.
- euroderf 3y agoThe Fair Representation Act sounds like a very sensible & effective mod.
- bediger4000 3y agoThis is the easiest partial solution to the very undemocratic Electoral College and more proportional House representation, and it may have side benefits, like fewer committee assignments (allowing in depth knowledge of subject), fewer constituents per Rep, making campaigns less expensive, and maybe making it harder to coerce an unpopular policy into law. You'd have to get way more Reps to vote for it (one way or another).
- thmsths 3y agoCould you please expand on your point: "like fewer committee assignments (allowing in depth knowledge of subject)". This seems counter intuitive. I am not too familiar with how the committees work in Congress, but naively I feel like if there were more Reps, the committees would also grow in size? Or do you mean that we would get more committees instead with more specialization?
- 0xffff2 3y agoI think the idea is that while the committee size might grow, it shouldn't/doesn't need to grown in proportion to the size of the overall congressional size, leading to fewer committee assignments per rep.
- bediger4000 3y agoThere's only so many committees. Larger number of Reps means fewer assignments per Rep. Each Rep can therefore study the committee's material better.
- snakeyjake 3y agoMy brain tells me this would also lower corruption both legal and illegal because the number of representatives that would have to be paid to swing a vote would increase and make it less affordable for corporations to make "totally no strings attached" campaign contributions and other forms of bribery. But my heart tells me most reps would sell out for a ham sandwich and 6,000 ham sandwiches don't cost that much.
- Spivak 3y agoGiven how little crossing the aisle there is it might not be so hard to get your way if you're able to make an issue partisan with the current majority party supporting the side you want. https://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2015/04/24/political_partisanship_in_three_stunning_charts_109196.html https://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2015/04/24/pol...