[EM] a question about apportionment

[Evan Dower]

Thanks! Unfortunately, it seems to be an expensive and
difficult-to-find book. Most things I've been able to find in the last
45 minutes (obviously not very long) seems to indicate that it is
descriptive rather than prescriptive, though. For example:
http://books.google.com/books?id=hgZYyJ2NiuMC&pg=PA160&lpg=PA160&dq=cube+root+law+assembly+size&source=bl&ots=oElujIcw2s&sig=YBqFX_BCxpcu0CgWTx2sPesY-0U&hl=en&ei=TDuqTdnpEqrSiAL3u6HvDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=cube%20root%20law%20assembly%20size&f=false
and
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=101051.0

On his blog, Shugart seems to indicate that there are good reasons for
it, but unfortunately he doesn't even summarize them. See the fourth
comment on http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=51

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 17:37, Bob Richard <lists001 at robertjrichard.com> wrote:
> A standard source on the cube root rule for the (approximately) "best" size
> of a legislative body is Rein Taagepera and Matthew Shugart, "Seats & Votes"
> (Yale University Press, 1989),  pages 172-183. They provide both empirical
> evidence and a conceptual explanation. I'm not familiar with any basis for
> using the square root of anything.
>
> --Bob Richard
>
> On 4/16/2011 5:11 PM, Evan Dower wrote:
>>
>> What are the reasons behind the square roots and cube roots? Can you
>> point me toward some research papers or something please?
>>
>> Also, in tiered representation, I would expect the representatives at
>> one tier to elect the representatives at the next (from among
>> themselves), but the United States elects people to most "tiers" based
>> on popular votes for the region represented by that representative. To
>> be more concrete, for tiered representation, I would expect (in your
>> example) federal legislators to be elected by state legislators (not
>> by the general public). Similarly, I would expect (again from your
>> example) "Flat/Young-Earth Geocentric Creationists" to be the only
>> ones allowed to vote on which of them should elected to the city
>> council. This certainly doesn't match what you mean by tiered
>> representation. Perhaps you could reference the definition you're
>> using?
>
>
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