Hello everyone it's nice to meet you all. I've been a lurker for quite a while and recently decided to join in on the "fun" if you will. Personally I have always been pretty interested in history in general so this seemed like a nice place to stop off at. Now onto the premise of this thread: a Unicameral US Legislature.
I know that the division of the US Legislature into two bodies was the result of compromise and a little bit of cultural inertia more or less but still. I personally have always viewed it as rather flawed, having two bodies doing the same thing always seemed a little redundant to me. As such I've been thinking of possible ways to solve this in a realistic fashion and I think I figured something out. Inspired in part by a CGP grey video my solution is to have members of the legislature be divided into two types.
Let me explain: The basic premise would be the US legislature, which would be called the Congress, having two types of Members of Congress(MC): Representatives and Delegates. Representatives would represent the states and would be appointed by said states legislature with a total of 2 per state. In contrast Delegates would instead represent the people and would be elected by said people with a total of 1 senator per 100,000 persons until their numbers reached 500. In effect what I am advocating for would be for the US House and Senate to have beeen fused into a single body sorta. Besides the way by which they are elected, or not, the MCs will otherwise be the same being able to vote for bills and serve alongside one another.
This system theoretically allows for a single house of Congress while satisfying the interests of both parties, having both the states and people being represented at the same time. Plus unicameral bodies are usually cheaper so that is nice.
So, could something like this have been possible during the formation of the USA?
I know that the division of the US Legislature into two bodies was the result of compromise and a little bit of cultural inertia more or less but still. I personally have always viewed it as rather flawed, having two bodies doing the same thing always seemed a little redundant to me. As such I've been thinking of possible ways to solve this in a realistic fashion and I think I figured something out. Inspired in part by a CGP grey video my solution is to have members of the legislature be divided into two types.
Let me explain: The basic premise would be the US legislature, which would be called the Congress, having two types of Members of Congress(MC): Representatives and Delegates. Representatives would represent the states and would be appointed by said states legislature with a total of 2 per state. In contrast Delegates would instead represent the people and would be elected by said people with a total of 1 senator per 100,000 persons until their numbers reached 500. In effect what I am advocating for would be for the US House and Senate to have beeen fused into a single body sorta. Besides the way by which they are elected, or not, the MCs will otherwise be the same being able to vote for bills and serve alongside one another.
This system theoretically allows for a single house of Congress while satisfying the interests of both parties, having both the states and people being represented at the same time. Plus unicameral bodies are usually cheaper so that is nice.
So, could something like this have been possible during the formation of the USA?