If you were going to use a proxy-type voting system, you could make the
following rules:
1. A successful candidate must have votes greater than or equal to the
square root of the total number of ballots cast.
2. The total number of successful candidate cannot be greater than the
fourth root of the total number of ballots cast (the square root of the
square root).
In the 2008 election, 122,394,724 people voted for President. The first
rule would mean that to be seated in the legislature, a candidate would
need at least 11,064 votes, and the maximum number of legislators would
be 105.
Of course, if you wanted to be closer to Warren's 250 limit, you could
take twice the fourth root (~210) or half of the cube root (~248). If
you were going to go the proxy (asset) route, there probably should be
some simple relation between the total votes cast, the minimum votes
needed to be elected, and the total number of legislators, without
fixing any single number in stone.
On 4/25/2011 2:56 PM, Warren Smith wrote:
here's an idea. Find out how many bills a typical legislator writes
that make it to a floor vote. If this number if below 1, then the
legislature is too large. (Course, there are bullshit do-nothing
bills galore. Some way need to be found to exclude them.)
If a legislature is to debate each substantive bill for 1 day, that means
there can be at most 365 substantive bills per year. Actually thanks
to weekends, vacations, etc, more like 250. That means, if there are
any more than 250 congressmen, then at least one of them will be
unable to write a substantive bill each year.
So I conclude legislature size ought to be capped at 250 or less.
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