A standard source on the cube root rule for the (approximately) "best"
size of a legislative body is Rein Taagepera and Matthew Shugart, "Seats
& Votes" (Yale University Press, 1989), pages 172-183. They provide
both empirical evidence and a conceptual explanation. I'm not familiar
with any basis for using the square root of anything.
--Bob Richard
On 4/16/2011 5:11 PM, Evan Dower wrote:
What are the reasons behind the square roots and cube roots? Can you
point me toward some research papers or something please?
Also, in tiered representation, I would expect the representatives at
one tier to elect the representatives at the next (from among
themselves), but the United States elects people to most "tiers" based
on popular votes for the region represented by that representative. To
be more concrete, for tiered representation, I would expect (in your
example) federal legislators to be elected by state legislators (not
by the general public). Similarly, I would expect (again from your
example) "Flat/Young-Earth Geocentric Creationists" to be the only
ones allowed to vote on which of them should elected to the city
council. This certainly doesn't match what you mean by tiered
representation. Perhaps you could reference the definition you're
using?
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