Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research
Article Title
When Equal Is Not Always Fair: Senate Malapportionment and its Effect on Enacting Legislation
Abstract
A brief and concise analysis on the current apportionment rules in the Senate and whether or not those rules affect enacted legislation. This was done to monitor whether the malapportioned Senate votes in accordance with the House. It is acknowledged in empirical literature that due to population variance some states are under-represented while others are over-represented. However, it has not been determined what effect, if any, this has on policy. The study was conducted by comparing pass rates of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate on enacted legislation over the last decade. I conclude that, on average, the median gap in pass rate between the two chambers is minimal. Furthermore, it is shown that while the Senate does, at some points, have drastically different pass rates from the House, there are a large number of instances where the chambers have nearly identical pass rates.
Recommended Citation
Alpert, Lindsey (2016) "When Equal Is Not Always Fair: Senate Malapportionment and its Effect on Enacting Legislation," Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 21Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/respublica/vol21/iss1/7