Malapportionment Is Destroying the Planet

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Matt Yglesias

The US Senate famously overrepresents certain rural areas* but some level of this form of malapportionment is a common feature of electoral systems. That allows for this interesting investigation from Lawrence Broz and Daniel Maliniak:

Gasoline taxes vary widely across industrialized countries, as does support for the United Nations’ effort to address the climate change problem.

We argue that malapportionment of the electoral system affects both the rate at which governments tax gasoline and the extent to which governments participate in global efforts to ameliorate climate change

. Malapportionment results in a “rural bias” such that the political system disproportionately represents rural voters. Since rural voters in industrialized countries rely more heavily on fossil fuels than urban voters, our prediction is that malapportioned political systems will have lower gasoline taxes, and less commitment to climate change amelioration, than systems with equitable representation of constituents.

We find that malapportionment is negatively related to both gasoline taxes and support for the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(where “support” is measured as the duration of the spell between the signing of the Protocol and ratification by the domestic legislature).

That’s via Erik Voeten. Of course there’s no short-term prospect for changing this in the United States. But it is an international problem, and some countries may have easier-to-change electoral systems. What’s more, over the long haul improving the institutions of government are more important than deciding which party happens to govern at some particular point in time. Left and right are bound to rotate in office over the years—what really drives outcomes is the nature of the polity in which they rotate.

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[mawilson 2,133]

Malapportionment makes sense in a country with soaring obesity rates.

Small portions are not gonna kill ya.

[Amby 490]

Malapportionment makes sense in a country with soaring obesity rates.

Small portions are not gonna kill ya.

[justashooter 430]

a-hole globalists just jealous of my truck.

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

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How do things get so twisted? The US Senate is SUPPOSED to represent states...not rural areas, not city areas, not the general population...STATES. The Senate was specifically designed to protect us from the mob rule that could easily result from representation ONLY by population. The model is used in nearly every other representative Republic, though others have stayed closer to our original model, with an APPOINTED Senate or House of Lords. The biggest mistake we ever made was changing to elect Senators rather than have them appointed as the state legislatures saw fit. Big mistake. Now the Senate is just as enslaved by lobbyists and special interests as the House, and is nothing but a perpetual election cycle.

The US was set up to operate this way and set up to make it difficult to pass legislation...thank goodness. That was NOT a mistake.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

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