Democracy

I usually take for granted the representation strategy for Senate and House of Representatives.  Occasionally, I’m reminded of how weird Senate presentation is.  A few years ago, Hendrick Hertzberg addressed this in his blog.  When the founders worked out this system, a compromise (hated by some of them) giving two senators to every state meant that some of the small states were getting twelve times as much representation as states of larger population.  Now, says Hertzberg, “Two hundred and twenty years later, the absurdity is five and a half times worse: a Wyoming voter gets sixty-eight times more representation in the Senate than a Californian.”  It’s now something that is often mentioned, but I don’t think I like it. (Hat tip also to Jonathan Chait.)