Alternate US Senate allocation

How likely is it to have a Senate that is apportioned according to the square root of population? Or according to square root of area (idealized perimeter) times square root of population?
 

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That would essentially defeat the point of the senate.

The whole reason it's there is so that the larger states wouldn't dominate over the smaller ones.
 
That would essentially defeat the point of the senate.

The whole reason it's there is so that the larger states wouldn't dominate over the smaller ones.
This is an alternate history, you know. It is possible that the larger states would have prevailed at the Con Con.
 

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What you are thinking is essentially the Virginia Plan succeeding, but how do the larger states make the smaller states go into something in which their power will be vastly disproportionately reduced than if they were to stay out of the union?
 
This is an alternate history, you know. It is possible that the larger states would have prevailed at the Con Con.


But probably only if they are prepared to accept a union of maybe half a dozen states, and just gamble on the others coming on board later.Take away the "equal suffrage in the Senate" and you can forget about getting nine ratifications.

Clinton Rossiter's The Grand Convention gives a good account of the battle over this issue.
 
First, Rhode Island and Delaware and their likes wouldn't have that much power outside of the Union anyway. The larger states could have said "take it or leave it" with regard to the Virginia plan, and if some of the small states left, it would look very bad--for the small states!

Anyway, a square root of population formula is interesting, since Virginia's population in 1790 was 747,610, while Delaware's was 59,096. Taking the square roots of both numbers yields 865 and 243, respectively, about 4:1 instead of 16:1 like in the House. Delaware would still have fairly disproportionate power, but not nearly as egregious as OTL.
 

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First, Rhode Island and Delaware and their likes wouldn't have that much power outside of the Union anyway. The larger states could have said "take it or leave it" with regard to the Virginia plan, and if some of the small states left, it would look very bad--for the small states!
A New England Confederation is perfectly viable and relatively powerful entity, and some of the mid-Atlantic states like New York or even Pennsylvania might join due to the power of the slave states in the rump US.
 
A New England Confederation is perfectly viable and relatively powerful entity, and some of the mid-Atlantic states like New York or even Pennsylvania might join due to the power of the slave states in the rump US.


And no doubt King George III would be only too delighted to take any holdout states back under his wing.

I don't suppose the small states (or indeed any of the states) would have seriously considered this course, but they might well use the threat to do so as a bargaining counter in dealing with their larger neighbours.
 
This is an alternate history, you know. It is possible that the larger states would have prevailed at the Con Con.

True, this is alternate history. None the less, it is extremely unlikely that the framers of the Constitution would design and adopt a document that included a Senate as you propose. It is also highly improbable that such a Constitution would be ratified as is.
 
If the Constitutional convention fails though....they would.

That's a big if though. From what I can gether, Madison and the backers of the Virginia Plan were the ones most anxious to get a stronger government. Some men from the smaller states also favoured this, but in general they could live with the status quo if they must. As a Robert Heinlein character once put it "He was eager; therefore I could afford not to be eager". If they agreed in principle to a stronger government, but held out on equality in the Senate (and no Federal veto on State laws - another of Madison's pet ideas) it was always on the cards that in the end he and his supporters would concede these points rather than lose all.
 
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