DEFECTS IN DISTRIBUTION OF REPRESENTATION

It is a theory of our representative government that representation should be proportional to population.  To secure this result, each state is divided into election districts presumably of as nearly equal population as possible, the senatorial districts being the larger.  In practice, however, these districts do not always have representation proportional to their population.  The county is often the unit of representation, or in New England the town, and these districts vary greatly in population.  An attempt is made to equalize the difference by providing that no district shall have less than one representative, and often that none shall have more than a certain number.  Inequalities nevertheless exist.  In Connecticut, thirty-four of the most populous towns and cities have sixty-eight members in the lower house, whereas if the distribution were made on the basis of population they would be entitled to 186 members.  Again, four of the smallest Connecticut towns, with a total population of 1567, have five members; four of the most populous cities, containing 309,982 inhabitants, have only eight members, whereas on the basis of population they would be entitled to eighty-seven. [Footnote:  C.A., Beard, America Government and Politics, p. 521.]

Partisan influences often enter into the districting of states for representation, the party in power trying to fix boundaries so as to ensure keeping their majority in the legislature.

Investigate and report on the following: 

Number of members in the lower and upper houses of your legislature.

Qualifications for membership and term of office in each house.

Names of your own representative and senator.

Secure a map showing legislative districts of your state.  Locate your own.

Whether representation in your legislature is proportional to population.

The “gerrymander”:  what is it, and has it been used in your state?

The legislature controls our lives at almost every turn.

It has control over the whole domain of civil law; [Footnote 2:  See below, p. 437.] that is, it lays down the rules governing contracts, real and personal property, inheritance, corporations, mortgages, marriage and divorce, and other civil matters.  It defines crime; that is, it prescribes those actions of the citizen which are to be punished by fine or imprisonment or death.  It touches the property of the citizen not only by regulating its use, but also by imposing upon it a burden of taxation.  Finally, it has control over the vast domain known as the police power, under which it makes regulations concerning public health, morals, and welfare, devises rules for the conduct of business and professions, and in other ways restrains the liberty of the citizen to do as he pleases. [Footnote 3:  C.A.  Beard, America Government and Politics,, p. 516.]