On enlarging the US house of representatives

Recent US court rulings have set the stage for a potential reduction in minority representation in the US House of Representatives from its current historic highs. We believe that such a reduction is unacceptable, and strongly agree with Richard Morrill's recent contention in this journal that political geographers should examine alternative methods of maintaining current levels of minority representation. In this essay, we argue that increasing the size of the US House of Representatives will provide the easiest method for maintaining current levels of minority representation, while allowing for the creation of geographically-meaningful election districts. We make this argument by (1) examining the current debate over how members of the US House are elected, (2) considering historical trends in the size of House constituencies and comparing them to those of legislatures in other countries, and (3) discussing how increasing the size of the House may lead to better quality representation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.