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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: other problems inherent to Democracy...
Message-ID: <1185@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 20:49:39 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.1185
Posted: Thu Mar  6 20:49:39 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Mar-86 06:06:32 EST
References: <1335@pucc-i>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 31

In article <1335@pucc-i> afb@pucc-i (Michael Lewis) writes:
>I think that the following changes should be made:
>
>    1. House terms moved to 4 years.
>    2. Senate terms moved to 8 years.
>    3. Presidential terms moved to 6 years.

I wonder.  The current situation in presidential politics is that the race
for the next election starts as soon as the last one is over.  It seems to
me that stretching the term out to 6 years will just make the race last 6
years instead of 4.  Also, 6 years is rather a long time to be committed
to an administration.

Extending house terms to 4 years might be desirable.  If you don't change
the presidential term, you then have a choice of

1. Electing representatives with the president
2. Electing representatives in non-presidential election years
3. Electing some reps with the president and some not

None of these is particularly satisfactory.  1 is probably the best option.
3, besides arbitrarily making some areas different from others, has problems
when you reapportion.  (The same problems occur if you do change the
presidential term.)  To take a simple case, suppose you have a state with
two representatives, one elected in 1988, and the other in 1990.  In the
1990 census, the population of the state has decreased to the point where
it now has only one representative.  When is the next election held, and
who represents what in the mean time?

Frank Adams                           ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108