Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Protection of Democracy is in the Numbers

This was originally published at the end of January.  I am re-releasing it now.

Here are some numbers from 50 somewhat randomly selected countries from the CIA Web site.

After all, the CIA does stand for Central Intelligence Agency...


Country Population Representatives in Lower House Type Of Legislature Representation Ratio
Marshall Islands 64522 33 Unicameral 1955
Iceland 306694 63 Unicameral 4868
Belize 307899 31 Bicameral 9932
Solomon Islands 595613 50 Unicameral 11912
Estonia 1299371 101 Unicameral 12865
Bahrain 728709 40 Bicameral 18218
Cuba 11451652 614 Unicameral 18651
Swaziland 1337186 65 Bicameral 20572
Armenia 2967004 131 Unicameral 22649
Ireland 4203200 166 Bicameral 25320
Denmark 5500510 179 Unicameral 30729
Korea, North 22665345 687 Unicameral 32992
Greece 10737428 300 Unicameral 35791
Switzerland 7604467 200 Bicameral 38022
Zimbabwe 11392629 210 Bicameral 54251
Angola 12799293 220 unicameral 58179
Israel 7233701 120 Unicameral 60281
Romania 22215421 334 Bicameral 66513
Belgium 10414336 150 Bicameral 69429
Yemen 22858238 301 Bicameral 75941
Malawi 15028757 193 Unicameral 77869
Belarus 9648533 110 Bicameral 87714
Haiti 9035536 99 Bicameral 91268
Italy 58126212 630 Bicameral 92264
United Kingdom 61113205 646 Bicameral 94602
Cameroon 18879301 180 Unicameral 104885
Iraq 28945569 275 Unicameral 105257
Canada 33487208 308 Bicameral 108725
Bosnia and Herzegovina 4613414 42 Bicameral 109843
France 64057792 577 Bicameral 111019
Spain 40525002 350 Bicameral 115786
Cambodia 14494293 123 Bicameral 117840
Turkey 76805524 550 Unicameral 139646
Australia 21262641 150 Bicameral 141751
Ethiopia 85237338 547 Bicameral 155827
Argentina 40913584 257 Bicameral 159197
Korea, South 48508972 299 Unicameral 162237
Egypt 78866635 454 Bicameral 173715
Vietnam 88576758 493 Unicameral 179669
Mexico 111211789 500 Bicameral 222424
Iran 66429284 290 Unicameral 229066
Russia 140041247 450 Bicameral 311203
Brazil 198739269 513 Bicameral 387406
Nigeria 149229090 360 Bicameral 414525
Japan 127078679 300 Bicameral 423596
China 1338612968 2987 Unicameral 448146
Pakistan 174578558 342 Bicameral 510464
Bangladesh 156050883 300 Unicameral 520170
United States 307212123 435 Bicameral 706235
India 1156897766 545 Bicameral 2122748

The Representation Ratio is how many persons are served by a representative.

What is this telling you?

I know when I see something like this I get depressed because it is obvious that we, as Americans, do not have nearly enough members in the House of Representatives.

We stopped adding them about 100 years ago when we added Arizona and New Mexico.

The party that properly takes on the message of adding to the House of Representatives will be granted the status of protector of the Democracy for the next generation.

5 comments:

R.I.P Jackhole said...

Hey joe great job. this is my first look over, but I would add a link to the terminology, i.e. Bicameral and such. I think in terms of target audience---holliday md/jackhole.

Bamboo Harvester said...

Our system of government has failed
it's Obsolete !

msbadger said...

Joe, I agree completely. I have felt that our gov't has been getting lamer and lamer for decades. I never thought about this aspect, however. Thank you as always- msbadger

Anonymous said...

Our Government needs an overhaul in many areas. Having more Representatives in the House would be an excellent start. I believe having as many as 2,000 Representatives (for 305 Million) would be a great opportunity for the American voter. This is 21st Century America, not 1880... BigAl72

william1950 said...

well, I never thought about this... at first glance it seems that it would be very hard to get anything done, but that might be a good thing in itself.. the ratio aspect makes sense.. hmmm i'll think on this.