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Monday, October 5, 2009

The Tyranny of the Minority.

If the 26 smallest states banded together they could control the US Senate with less than 17% of the US population*, and our Government wouldn't be able to get anything done.

Oh wait, isn't that sort of what's happening right now?

*See US Census 2006 Population estimates.

6 comments:

Larry Rhoden said...

Bill,
Isn't this what makes a Republican form of government fundamentally better than a Democracy? In a Democracy, majority rules, period. In a Republic, even a minority has the power to protect the individual.

Bill Fleming said...

Yes, Larry, to a degree. But not to an absurd degree.

Bill Fleming said...

Larry, when the US was founded, the ratio of the largest populated state to the least populated was approx. 12 to one. As of the 2004 Census that ratio had changed to 70 to 1.

Les said...

Are you saying we should abandon the states Bill?

Bill Fleming said...

No, Les. Not at all. Quite the opposite. I'm saying that the states (and by extension the people who live in them) should have more equitable representation.

How can one person possibly represent the relative political disposition of 600,000 people?

Sabato's suggestion is that there should perhaps be 135 senators and 1000 representatives. I'm saying that's worth at least thinking about.

Les said...

Bill, sending people to represent us and expecting them to stay true to us, reminds me of the CEO of Digital at one time being asked how many people worked for him. He replied about half. If only we had that success margin in government!