[EM] Geographical districts

[Raph Frank]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 11:34 PM, James Gilmour <jgilmour at globalnet.co.uk> wrote:
> It is not (or should not be) a question of whether or not there is a consensus at any particular geographical level of community.
> The defining factors for "the geographical community" should be the level at which the electors can engage with the particular issue
> and the level at which something can actually be done.  In all cases the objective should be to ensure that the various "assemblies"
> elected to deal with the issues are properly representative of those they are elected to serve.  For city-wide issues, the
> "geographical community" is the whole city.  For issues affecting only my local school, the "geographical community" is the area of
> the city served by that school  -  but if there are no fixed geographies associated with the various schools in the city, the
> appropriate community for the school board is the families whose children attend the local school.

This is called subsidiarity.  It is (in theory) the guiding principle
when deciding if the EU as a whole or the individual members should
handle an issue.

It is a good idea.  However, who gets to decide what is the correct
level.  Often, it is the larger assembly that gets to decide if power
should be delegated to a smaller area.

In the US, the federal government decides to a certain extent what
power the States should have.