Question

What called for the creation of a bicameral, or two-house, national legislature, where each state would send representatives in proportion to the number of its citizens?

Answer 1

The bicameral structure of Congress, featuring the House of Representatives and the Senate, was devised during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 based on the Great Compromise to appease both large and small states. Apportionment in the House is determined by population, while the Senate ensures equal representation by allowing two senators per state.

Step-by-step explanation:

Origins of the Bicameral Congress

The call for the creation of a bicameral, or two-house, national legislature, where each state would send representatives in proportion to the number of its citizens, was a result of the Virginia Plan. The framers of the Constitution, faced with the task of creating a fair and effective legislative system, ultimately decided on a bicameral legislature as a key component of the Great Compromise. This structure comprises the House of Representatives, where representation is based on state population and thus favors larger states, and the Senate, with two senators from each state to ensure equal representation regardless of size. The Great Compromise, suggested by Roger Sherman, was designed to balance the interests of both large and small states and was a pivotal moment at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The Constitutional Convention shifted its aim from revising the Articles of Confederation to creating a new Constitution largely due to the inadequacies of the unicameral system under the Articles, where each state had equal representation regardless of population.

The bicameral legislature also took cues from historical practices in Europe, where the concept of a two-chambered system divided by class or other criteria was established. However, in the American context, this division was focused on the balance of power between states, drawing from both the Virginia Plan, which proposed proportional representation and was favored by larger states, and the New Jersey Plan, which suggested equal representation and was advocated by smaller states.

The end result was the establishment of a Congress divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives. Initially, Senators were appointed by state legislatures and served for six years, whereas members of the House were popularly elected and served for two years.

Apportionment of the House of Representatives is determined based on population figures collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, while the Senate's membership remains fixed at two senators per state.

Answer 2

A two house legislative system was created to make sure that states were equally represented. For example, in the senate there's two people per state, which means that a state with 1000 people has the same amount of people in the congress as the state with 10000000 people, meaning that the 1000 could decide for the 10000000. To avoid this, there's two houses, one like the senate where there's equal representation. And the house of representatives which is based around the amount of people per state, decided every decade using a census. The number of representatives thus changes every 10 years.