The cube root law is an observation in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

that the number of members of a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

legislature, or the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of a

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...

legislature, is about the

cube root In mathematics, a cube root of a number is a number such that . All nonzero real numbers, have exactly one real cube root and a pair of complex conjugate cube roots, and all nonzero complex numbers have three distinct complex cube roots. Fo ...

of the population being represented. The rule was devised by

Rein Taagepera Rein Taagepera (born 28 February 1933) is an Estonian political scientist and former politician. Education Born in Tartu, Estonia, Taagepera fled from occupied Estonia in 1944. Taagepera graduated from high school in Marrakech, Morocco and the ...

in his 1972 paper "The size of national assemblies". The law has led to a proposal to increase the size of the United States House of Representatives so that the number of representatives would be the

of the US population as calculated in the most recent census. The

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

has had 435 members since the

Reapportionment Act of 1929 The Reapportionment Act of 1929 (ch. 28, , ), also known as the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, is a combined census and apportionment bill enacted on June 18, 1929, that establishes a permanent method for apportioning a constant 435 seats ...

was passed; if the US followed the cube root rule, there would be 693 members of the House of Representatives based on the population at the 2020 Census. This proposal was endorsed by the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' editorial board in 2018.

Subsequent analysis

It has been claimed by Giorgio Margaritondo that the experimental data, including the dataset originally used by Taagepera in 1972, actually fits better to a function with a higher exponent, and that there is sufficient deviation from the cube root rule to question its usefulness. In this regard, analysis by Margaritondo gives an optimal formula of:

A = 0.1P^

, where A is the size of the assembly, P is the population, and E = 0.45±0.03. Applying this formula to the U.S. House Of Representatives as of the 2020 Census would give a House of between 379 and 1231 members, while using an exponent of 0.4507 gives 693 (the same result using the cube root rule).

Table comparing OECD nations in 2019

Historical House sizes

The following table describes how the US House of Representatives would have looked historically under the cube root rule.

References

{{polisci-stub Electoral reform in the United States United States House of Representatives United States Electoral College United States congressional districts Voting theory

Subsequent analysis

Table comparing OECD nations in 2019

Historical House sizes

See also

References