Ch. 3b: Summary of Proposed Reforms
A roadmap for reform
The following are the reforms proposed in Part Two of this book:
1. Eliminate the Senate to make the Legislative Branch a unicameral body.
2. Increase the size of Congress to 695 members and require Congress to change its size after each Census depending on the population of the country.
3. Grant statehood to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Four Island Territories.
4. Require states with more than one representative to use some form of proportional voting method, specifically proportional ranked choice voting with multimember districts of between 3 and 5 members.
5. Eliminate the Electoral College and elect the President by ranked choice popular vote.
6. Lower the threshold for impeaching the President to 60% of Congress.
7. Set a term limit of roughly 20 years for Supreme Court Justices.
8. Create a set schedule for appointments to the Supreme Court.
9. Increase the size of the Supreme Court to either 11 or 21 Justices.
Combined, these reforms would rebalance the three Branches, increasing the power of the Legislative while reducing the power of the Executive and the Judiciary. Here is an overview of my rationale, and I go into detail justifying each reform in Part Two.
Reform 1 will increase the power of the Legislative by removing the internal check, the Senate, on its use of power. In my view, the current structure of the Legislative prevents it from appropriately asserting its power and exercising the will of the people. The Framers intended the Legislative Branch to be the closest to the people, and the most powerful. This reform will accomplish that goal.
The purpose of Reforms 2 and 3 is to ensure universal suffrage and equal representation in Congress.
Reform 4 will make multiple parties electorally viable. While it may be tempting to try to eliminate political parties altogether, political parties are inevitable in democratic government. This is because in a large society, there will always be different factions with different priorities, and they will always find a way to organize. It is impossible to have zero political parties. Having a one-party system is undesirable as well, for obvious reasons. And our two-party system incentivizes conflict and has brought us to the precipice upon which we find ourselves today. In a multiparty system, it is difficult for any single party to win a majority. To govern, parties must form coalitions, and are incentivized to cooperate. At the same time, too many parties can lead to fragmentation and legislative instability. As shown by my state-by-state analysis in Chapter 8, the incentives created by the structure of these proposed reforms will make viable at least 4 political parties.
Reforms 5 and 6 will make the Executive Branch more accountable to the people. First, by ensuring that the person who receives the most votes wins the Presidency. And second, by making it easier for the Legislative to check a rogue or otherwise unfit President.
The three reforms to the Judicial Branch are designed to reduce the political stakes for each individual judicial nomination by limiting the maximum length of time each Justice can serve, increasing the predictability of the appointments, and expanding the Court to dilute the power of each individual Justice.
While these reforms could be implemented one at a time, in piecemeal fashion, they are intended to be implemented as a complimentary package.
In sum, these reforms would be transformational. If implemented, I believe the new structure of government would allow our democracy to meet the needs of the American people in the 21st century.