Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Beginning in 1962, the United States Supreme Court embarked on a series of decisions which mandated that all state legislatures be apportioned according to the principle of “one person, one vote.” This principle actually embodies two distinct concepts: the idea that each person is entitled to the vote and the notion that each person's vote should be worth the same as every other person's. The former is achieved through universal adult suffrage; the latter through numerical apportionment, which makes representation in the legislature proportionate to population. The idea of “one person, one vote” first appeared during the American Revolution. In the years thereafter it gained a permanent place in both the state and the federal governments. However, it took almost two centuries for these principles to be fully realized in practice.Representation was at the center of the American controversy with Great Britain. As the colonies developed, each one established a system of representative government, modeled on Parliament, in which the lower house of the assembly was popularly elected. The colonists believed that only their colonial assemblies - their elected representatives -had the right to tax them. Before the Sugar and Stamp Acts of 1764 and 1765, Parliament had never attempted to tax the colonists. Previous Acts had been designed to regulate trade or to provide for the defense of ... log in or subscribe to read full text