The Decentralist Papers · Paper II of XX
The Representation Problem
770,000 to 1
The Constitution intended roughly one representative per 30,000 citizens. The first Congress had 65 members for 4 million people.
In 1929, Congress capped the House at 435 members and never adjusted.
Today: 335 million people ÷ 435 representatives = 770,000 people per representative.
Your congressman doesn’t know you. Can’t know you. Represents three-quarters of a million strangers.
The original ratio applied to the Continental Union:
1,000,000,000 ÷ 30,000 = 33,333 representatives
| Territory | Population | Representatives |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 347M | 11,567 |
| Mexico | 132M | 4,400 |
| Brazil | 216M | 7,200 |
| Colombia | 53M | 1,767 |
| Argentina | 46M | 1,533 |
| Venezuela | 29M | 967 |
| Peru | 34M | 1,133 |
| Chile | 20M | 667 |
| Ecuador | 18M | 600 |
| Central America | 53M | 1,767 |
| Caribbean | 28M | 933 |
| Canada | 40M | 1,333 |
| Bolivia | 12M | 400 |
| Paraguay | 7M | 233 |
| Uruguay | 4M | 133 |
| Guyana/Suriname | 2M | 67 |
| Greenland | 57K | 2 |
| Total | ~1B | ~33,333 |
This is not radical. This is the original design, applied to the full Continental Union — Greenland to Tierra del Fuego.
With 33,000+ representatives:
- Each serves 30,000 neighbors (a small town, a few neighborhoods)
- They know their community
- They cannot hide from accountability
- Gerrymandering becomes mathematically impossible