Artifacts

Federalist Style Paper #3

Apportionment is the means of trying to equally apportion our congressional seats among the very different United States of America.  Apportionment is not always easy to achieve in being fair. Apportionment is the mathematical application to our democracy.

In a federalist government, there are a group of states that all have their own governments that are inferior to a federal government, a coalition of all of the states in the federation.  The federal government has a limited number of seats that each state has represented. This system favors big states with large populations over small states with smaller populations. In order to counteract this, the Constitution of The United States has many compromises such as the New Jersey Plan and the Connecticut Compromise in order to balance the power and give smaller states equal representation.  Many people that argue that smaller states are disregarded wish that the states had more seats in the house of representatives. Although, seats in the lower chamber are not based on the physical size of the state and instead given seats based on population.

In any society, it is impossible to achieve 100% fairness.  I think that seats are apportioned as fair as they can be right now.  If America were to change the way that representatives were apportioned, larger states would somewhat be drowned out.  In order to make up for less populous states such as Wyoming only having one at-large representative, Congress could increase its number of total representatives and states would have a smaller remainder in apportionment formulas and would have more representatives.  By increasing the number of seats in Congress, this would also allow for territories to have voting representation in Congress.

Territories of the United States include Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and many others.  Despite not being required to pay federal income taxes, many of these territories still end up paying many of the same federal taxes that mainland Americans pay such as payroll taxes, social security taxes, business taxes, gift taxes, estate taxes, etc.  Because they pay these taxes, should they not receive voting rights and proper representation? Many of these places could benefit from representation in Congress and with elections that will ultimately affect them as well. If these policies (i.e. trade, tariffs, foreign policy, etc.) are affecting these people, they should be able to have a say.  This is a basic principle that the United States was founded on and has been a pillar of the American way of life.

While apportionment of representatives may never be able to be fully fair, there are some steps that can be taken to make it as close to fair as possible.  By giving all groups representation, we are taking steps toward making our apportionment as fair as possible.

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

About Me

I am Cameron Jordan and I am a first-year student at The Ohio State University. I am enrolled in the Food Science and Technology on a pre-law professional program. I plan on going to law school and become a lawyer for food companies and to lobby in the good food initiative.

I have set my academic goals very high in hopes that I get into law school. I take my academics very seriously and value my education highly. I chose to do the PSL scholars program because I would like to be more politically active as I would someday like to be a high ranking law official.

G.O.A.L.S.

 

  • Global Awareness: I have been researching various education abroad opportunities. One way that I would like to be globally aware is to participate in the Food Policy In Italy education abroad in order to learn about how the European Union’s regulation on food effects various country’s culture.
  • Original Inquiry: I would like to work on a research endeavor within my major of food science and technology. I would like to research ways to make our processing healthier and less harmful to the body.
  • Academic Enrichment: I would like to combine my major of food science and my minor of political science in order to work in the food industry and understand the policy behind food.
  • Leadership Development: I would like to pursue an appointed position in the College Democrats at Ohio State University’s executive board.
  • Service Engagement: I would like to serve Ohio State by working with a STEM mentor program for children where I can enhance their learning.