Essay On Representative Democracy

America’s democracy was created to serve the will of the people. Therefore, individual citizens vote for those they feel best represent their beliefs into office. Thus, the opinions and views of the American people are proportionally represented and expressed by the government. However, this may not be the case within the legislative branch. More specifically, voters may ultimately not be choosing who represents them in the House of Representatives. Through gerrymandering, politicians are able to legally compromise voter representation for their own political benefit. This blow to democracy needs to be effectively addressed, so that the United States can continue to be respectively referred to as a representative democracy.

Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the US Constitution states: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators.” Through this clause, state legislatures are given the power to regulate the “manner” of elections; therefore, they have the power to draw congressional district lines which

First, states can create independent commissions. These commissions would be comprised of appointed independent citizens who would informatively draw congressional lines based on population. Second, state legislatures can use computer-based models and algorithms that would produce results (Hebert and Jenkins 556). However, both of these methods could potentially be exposed to corruption and bias, and they can also cause elections to be uncompetitive which voters find objectionable. This may also lead to slightly skewed representation, but these methods diminish the problem to an