Well, that's partially thanks to our country being oversized. Those who vote for Ted Cruz would never vote for Bernie Sanders, and vice versa, but when they think of what congress is all about, people think of the other side.
That and people not knowing who their reps are and just voting by party.
There's another problem. They stopped increasing the number of congressional districts in 1910. Each congressman used to have about 10K constituents; now it's about 6 times that.
That's too many people with too many different opinions.
I don't remember how many we would have to have to have the percentage of reps per represented that the Founders had, but it wasn't that high. Under a thousand.
The difference would be, though, closer to democracy.
the us orginal had less hen 30,000 people per districs. at the turn of the centrel it was about 173 thousdon per district. it is currently seven hundred thousond per district.
quite posbley. i think that theres quite an intresting ballance to be picked bettween having a resonble size to your parlement, and adiquet repsentition. i picked india to study (for a loose value of the word) becous india is obvousley the extream. it makes me wonder if a some what radical shake up isnt nessery. like...and this is spit balling, having a 7 reps elected for those seven hundred thousdon, and then, between them, picking one. they might be part time, and paid a part time sallery. they coud hold surgrys, and discuses with the one of them they've chosen amoung them selfs the problems
i also think that a major problem, and a reason it seems so unresonble, is gerry mandering. i am genunly shocked that you use such a poltical methord in so meny places. the long, snaking districts i see make no sence, expect, of course, as a politcal monovuer. why has no one tryed to regulate this? why arent non partisan people with gudelines used (gudelines like, it should be some kind of community, or collection of communtys.
i went and found the UKs rules for this, as i think there intresting
We first calculate the electoral quota. This is the number of registered electors in the UK divided by the number of constituencies (not including four exempt constituencies – please see A guide to the 2013 Review for more details on how the electoral quota is worked out). The current electoral quota is 76,641. Every constituency in England – except two covering the Isle of Wight – must have a number of registered electors within 5% of this figure.
Using this quota, we allocate the specified number of constituencies among the nine regions of England. However, within the regions it has not always been possible to propose whole numbers of constituencies to individual counties or local authorities.
In such cases, we looked at whether, and how, local authorities could be grouped into sub-regions. Where we could, we sought to respect their external boundaries and achieve obvious practical groupings. However, in some areas we have had to propose constituencies that cross county or unitary authority boundaries.
In our initial proposals, we have used wards as the smallest unit when creating constituencies. We do not consider that it would be appropriate to divide wards, in the absence of exceptional and compelling circumstances."
all that stuff means is, basicly, a constutisey has to conform to some verity of local goverment (and there for local community) boundrys.
sorry, this is something that pisses me off. i relase ive gone of topic...
i also think that a major problem, and a reason it seems so unresonble, is gerry mandering.
Absolutely!
why has no one tryed to regulate this?
Oh, people have tried. When the legislature and the executive work in concert, and when the courts are often stacked years in advance, that means three out of three branches of government are in on the fix.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-06-24 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-24 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-24 04:57 pm (UTC)That and people not knowing who their reps are and just voting by party.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-24 11:06 pm (UTC)That's too many people with too many different opinions.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-24 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-25 07:42 pm (UTC)The difference would be, though, closer to democracy.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-25 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-26 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-26 12:45 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment#Reapportionment
for comprassion, the uk has 1 mp per 92 thousdon people, or 60 some elegible to vote.
meanwhile, the indian lower house, with 545 memebers, has aproxamtly 1.8 million people per consitutsy. if i did my maths right.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-26 10:21 pm (UTC)I still maintain that this is far too many per rep.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-27 07:54 am (UTC)i also think that a major problem, and a reason it seems so unresonble, is gerry mandering. i am genunly shocked that you use such a poltical methord in so meny places. the long, snaking districts i see make no sence, expect, of course, as a politcal monovuer. why has no one tryed to regulate this? why arent non partisan people with gudelines used (gudelines like, it should be some kind of community, or collection of communtys.
i went and found the UKs rules for this, as i think there intresting
http://consultation.boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/faqs/
"How do you work out the boundaries?
We first calculate the electoral quota. This is the number of registered electors in the UK divided by the number of constituencies (not including four exempt constituencies – please see A guide to the 2013 Review for more details on how the electoral quota is worked out). The current electoral quota is 76,641. Every constituency in England – except two covering the Isle of Wight – must have a number of registered electors within 5% of this figure.
Using this quota, we allocate the specified number of constituencies among the nine regions of England. However, within the regions it has not always been possible to propose whole numbers of constituencies to individual counties or local authorities.
In such cases, we looked at whether, and how, local authorities could be grouped into sub-regions. Where we could, we sought to respect their external boundaries and achieve obvious practical groupings. However, in some areas we have had to propose constituencies that cross county or unitary authority boundaries.
In our initial proposals, we have used wards as the smallest unit when creating constituencies. We do not consider that it would be appropriate to divide wards, in the absence of exceptional and compelling circumstances."
all that stuff means is, basicly, a constutisey has to conform to some verity of local goverment (and there for local community) boundrys.
sorry, this is something that pisses me off. i relase ive gone of topic...
no subject
Date: 2014-06-27 10:56 pm (UTC)Absolutely!
why has no one tryed to regulate this?
Oh, people have tried. When the legislature and the executive work in concert, and when the courts are often stacked years in advance, that means three out of three branches of government are in on the fix.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-25 09:11 am (UTC)