[EM] legislature size

[robert bristow-johnson]

On Apr 25, 2011, at 5:56 PM, Warren Smith wrote:

> here's an idea.  Find out how many bills a typical legislator writes
> that make it to a floor vote.  If this number if below 1, then the
> legislature is too large.  (Course, there are bullshit do-nothing
> bills galore.  Some way need to be found to exclude them.)
>
> If a legislature is to debate each substantive bill for 1 day, that  
> means
> there can be at most 365 substantive bills per year.   Actually thanks
> to weekends, vacations, etc, more like 250.   That means, if there are
> any more than 250 congressmen, then at least one of them will be
> unable to write a substantive bill each year.
>
> So I conclude legislature size ought to be capped at 250 or less.


it's a pretty good guess.  and i'm still a little clueless about a  
detail in the Huntington-Hill apportionment algorithm (whether it's  
250 or 435).

my feeling is that there are bills that are co-authored or even more  
authors (really gross sausage).  and, of course, we know there are far  
more than 250 bills before congress in a year.  i dunno how many are  
bullshit bills.

Warren, i sent you an email last Feb or March.  did you get it?  i  
sited your Burlington 2009 IRV page (and your name, along with Tony  
Gierzynski) in a short op piece i wrote for the Burlington Free Press.  
i told folks here about the piece, when it was published. i left you  
as a Temple University prof, because i didn't know what else to call  
you.  the losers of the IRV fight (of 2010) wanted to get the charter  
to require a majority vote or it goes to a delayed runoff.  we lost  
again, so unless it goes below 40%, we have Plurality Rule here in  
Burlington.  the Progs might not run a candidate, as a consequence.

L8r,

--

r b-j                  rbj at audioimagination.com

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."