What Is the Salary for the House Representatives
Last November revealed the capstone of misrepresentation in American republic when Hillary Clinton won the pop vote by 2.9 million votes only lost in the Balloter College.
But what about the U.S. Congress? How representative of the American people is the House of Representatives? My Brookings colleague Molly Reynolds finds the Republican Party's current "seat bonus"—a college pct of seats than of votes—aligns with the historic advantage for whatsoever majority party in the House over the final 70 years, back to 1946.
This mail service focuses on how representative the new 115th Congress is on a state-past-state level.
Bulk political party over-represented
Despite its name, the Firm of Representatives is not so representative.
As the chart beneath shows, the total vote differential betwixt the two parties for elections to the Firm in 2022 was 1.2 percentage. But the departure in the number of seats is 10.eight percent, giving a total of 21 extra seats to Republicans.
Figure 1: National Distribution of Votes for Congress
| NUMBER | Per centum | |||
| Party | Republican | Democrat | Republican | Democrat |
| Votes | 63,164,365 | 61,750,858 | l.six% | 49.four% |
| Seats | 241 | 194 | 55.4% | 44.6% |
| "Misrepresented Seats" | 21 | -21 | 4.8% | -4.8 |
Over-representation by land
This aggregate over-representation of the majority party is considerably farthermost when looked at country-by-state. In crimson states (run into Figure ii), Republicans garnered 56 percent of the vote just 74.6 pct of representation. In blue states, Democrats won 60.3 percent of the vote but 69.one percent of representation.
Almost all states are "true"—"true reddish states" have a Republican bulk of votes and representation; "true blue states" have a Autonomous majority of votes and representation. Two states are "flipped blue states;"in Virginia and Wisconsin Republicans received a majority of seats despite Democrats winning a majority of the votes for Congress.
Misrepresentation is considerably larger inside each reddish and blueish grouping than in the U.S. as a whole. Translated into seats in the Firm, Democrats over-stand for blue states (excluding the two flipped states) past xix seats, whereas Republicans over-represent true red and flipped blue states past 40 seats. Republicans over-correspond cerise states (true and flipped) by 16 percentage points, while in united blue states the disparity is xi percentage points.
Figure ii: Bulk Party Wins Disproportionate Representation
Misrepresentation in small and big states
For private states, misrepresentation is even larger. The level of misrepresentation is 20 per centum or greater in 23 states—almost half the state—and over 30 percent in 12 states.
To a sure extent, misrepresentation is partly a function of land size. In small states with a single member—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming—there is no alternative to the votes of a portion of the citizens not being represented. In these states, on boilerplate, 37 percent of voters selected the losing party. Even states with 2 representatives—New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, and Idaho—have a large degree of misrepresentation, on average 28 percent. This is not surprising in a winner-take-all organisation. Overall, the misrepresentation from these small states cancels out in the amass—in the 17 seats of these states there is only a 3 per centum signal disparity between the distribution of votes and the distribution of seats.
On the other farthermost are the four largest states—New York, Florida, Texas, and California. Together, these states send 143 representatives to Congress. Each has less than ten percent misrepresentation—votes from the losing political party in one district are compensated in other districts. Moreover, the overall distribution from these states is the storybook picture of democracy at work: Between them, the distribution of votes and seats was equal, with less than ane per centum divergence between votes and representation (45 percentage for Republicans, 55 for Democrats).
Effigy three: Misrepresentation in Small and Large States 2016
Annotation: The level of misrepresentation is computed as the difference between percent of votes and percent of seats.
Misrepresentation in midsized states
That leaves the 34 midsized states, with 275 seats among them, to account for the observed misrepresentation. Figure four plots the number of seats from each state against the level of misrepresentation. Large and modest states are gray; midsized states are red. In general there is an changed correlation between the number of representatives from a state and the level of misrepresentation. States with three to five representatives range between 11 to 36 pct points of misrepresentation, while those with x-20 representatives range from four to 24 percentage points of misrepresentation.
Figure 4: Number of Seats in Congress Compared to Level of Representation
Figure 5 beneath shows the level of misrepresentation in the 34 midsized states, ranked in order of the level of misrepresentation with blueish and reddish states shown separately. This effigy shows the quite big level of disproportionate representation in many states. Out of the 34, more than one-tertiary (13) have a disparity betwixt votes and representation of 20 pct or larger, and in all simply v states the disparity is greater than x percent.
Midsized red states have on average a considerably higher percent level of misrepresentation—in these states, while 58 percent of the votes went to Republicans, they took 76 pct of the seats—an 18 percentage point difference that translates into 34 seats. Comparatively, in the midsized blue states, 59 percent of votes were for Democrats, who obtained 72 per centum of seats—a 13 per centum point difference that translates into 11 seats. Furthermore, red states brand up nine of the 13 states with an excess of 20 points or higher misrepresentation.
Figure v: Misrepresentation in Midsized States in 2016
Annotation: Level of misrepresentation computed as the departure betwixt percent of votes and percentage of seats.
Redistricting
What is underlying this outcome? In principle, such results are possible even if most of the state is competitive, but one party has an edge in the majority of the districts. In practice, how districts are drawn can also bear upon outcomes. In fact, some states have moved to have redistricting away from elected country politicians past instituting independent redistricting commissions. The iv large states that have independent commissions—California, New Jersey, Washington, and Arizona—have less than ten percent misrepresentation. The two other states with independent commissions, Idaho, and Montana, with two and 1 congressional representatives respectively, take greater than 30 percent misrepresentation. There is no getting effectually size!
Overrepresentation by number of seats per state
Equally to states with the about number of "actress" seats, Democrats dominate in California, with almost five improver seats. Republicans have approximately three extra seats in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Due north Carolina.
Effigy 6: Over-representation of Majority Political party
Note: Measured in congressional seats (compared with distribution of the votes).
Implications
The independence of the U.S. was launched by a defection over the lack of representation. Misrepresentation tin can atomic number 82 to social and economic policy distortions, feed distrust, and drive discontent in government. Gerrymandering hinders party competition and the resulting political monopoly feeds extremism in the majority party. The edge provided by this misrepresentation gives the majority party disproportionate power that is particularly destabilizing and dangerous in an era of heightened polarization and partisanship.
The data advise that the most serious trouble is in midsized states, a problem that could be alleviated by the blueprint of districts by contained bodies.
Source: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/02/22/misrepresentation-in-the-house/
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