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The People's Perspective on the Size of the People'sHouse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Brian Frederick
Brian Frederick
Affiliation:
Bridgewater State College
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Extract

The quality of representation the citizenry receives from itspolitical leaders is central to evaluating the character of anydemocratic institution. Moreover, the number of elected members thatcomprise an institution can be vital in determining whether citizenshave access to and can influence the decisions of theirrepresentatives (Dahl and Tufte 1973). TheUnited States House of Representatives has been frozen at 435members for almost a century. This durability of this alignment isastonishing; in its first century of existence, the U.S. Houseexperienced a virtually uninterrupted string of decennial increasesin its membership. Despite the magnitude of the effects of thisstasis on representation, political scientists have not extensivelyexamined this subject (Squire and Hamm 2005). While the House has remained constant in size fornearly 100 years, the nation's population has grown by more than200% over this duration. Members of the House on average representmore than 600,000 citizens; a figure that increases with populationgrowth as long as the size of the body remains constant. Thisdevelopment has sparked a debate among some observers about whetherit is time to increase the size of the House of Representatives.

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FEATURES
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PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 329 - 335
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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