> In most European democracies, geography doesn’t matter in the same way. Legislators are elected from larger districts, each with multiple representatives, granting parties proportional power. If a party wins 50 percent of the votes, it doesn’t matter much if those votes are evenly spread around or tightly clustered.
Comparisons with European democracies strike me as counterproductive; the US is a federal republic, whereas most European democracies are unitary states.
I'd be interested in an analysis that compares the urban-rural divide in the US with that of the EU, which are both similarly large, similarly heterogenous, similarly Federal in nature, and (perhaps most importantly) have similar structures of government.
The US's Senate looks less like the upper houses of most European democracies, and a lot more like the EU's Council of the European Union[1], which is the upper house of their (essentially) bicameral legislature. Like the Senate, it grants equal representation to its states.
I'd also be interested in an analysis that compares the US with Switzerland, whose structure similarly favors decentralization. The Swiss Council of States[2] distributes its seats by state (canton), rather than by population.
Not to mention theres still a huge rural conservative/urban liberal divide in Europe. Its practically every where you look in the world and reaches back to at least the French Revolution.
While the majority of countries in the European Union are not federation of states, there is several that have exactly that structure: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France and the Netherlands. Austria, Germany, Finland and France being republics, the other ones with a (ceremonial) monarch as head of state.
It’s still quite different. In the Bundesrat for example, more populous states have more votes. And unlike in the US, all legislation does not require involvement of the Bundesrat.
Sure, and the majority of States in the US are themselves federations of yet smaller administrative subdivisions. 49 out of 50 US States have bicameral legislatures.
The point still stands, the US looks less like Austria or Germany or Denmark, and more like the EU, as a whole.
Bicameral legislatures don't imply federalism. In my state and the ones around me, the upper house members don't represent counties, just slightly larger districts than the lower house.
You're right, my point was more that there exists some states that look like Austria/Germany, and some states that look like Denmark. The existence of a bicameral legislature was more a reference to the self-governing nature of the states (which have executive branches, constitutions, and judiciaries).
Which is all to say: the US is more similar to the EU than it is to any one of its individual member states.
Comparisons with European democracies strike me as counterproductive; the US is a federal republic, whereas most European democracies are unitary states.
I'd be interested in an analysis that compares the urban-rural divide in the US with that of the EU, which are both similarly large, similarly heterogenous, similarly Federal in nature, and (perhaps most importantly) have similar structures of government.
The US's Senate looks less like the upper houses of most European democracies, and a lot more like the EU's Council of the European Union[1], which is the upper house of their (essentially) bicameral legislature. Like the Senate, it grants equal representation to its states.
I'd also be interested in an analysis that compares the US with Switzerland, whose structure similarly favors decentralization. The Swiss Council of States[2] distributes its seats by state (canton), rather than by population.
[1] https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-bodie...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_States_(Switzerland...