Two might be greater than three, but three is greater than one
On James Madison, checks and balances, and why a tricameral would be better than a unicameral legislature
It is far from unreasonable to be unsatisfied with the overall performance of Congress. As an institution, the Article I branch of government often prefers to act like Statler and Waldorf, heckling from the sidelines without really doing anything. But a distressing number of people seem to think that the solution to Congressional dysfunction is to take radical steps to dismantle Federalism, by abolishing the Senate or switching to a national popular vote for President.
■ James Madison was no fool: He understood that human nature always includes an aspect of pride, with an attendant hunger for status and a jealousy to protect it. That’s what makes his Federal model work, with branches of government at the same level keeping one another in check and divisions of government at different levels doing the same.
■ The Tenth Amendment is pretty clear about this latter point: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” It was foreseeable, even in 1789, that the national government would try to do too much and that it wouldn’t be to the benefit of the “general welfare”.
■ The need to restrain the government is exactly what makes a bicameral Congress such a good thing. In order for legislation to advance, it has to pass through two different filters. That increases the odds that the legislation will be arrested before it goes too far. For that matter, if forced to fundamentally change our legislative branch, the better choice would be to add a house of Congress to Article I rather than subtracting one.
■ The seats in the new third chamber could be allocated proportionally by some new standard: Occupation, education, age, or something else. The point of a multi-chamber legislature is to filter out bad ideas -- and that’s a good thing! Two chambers is probably quite enough, but three chambers would be better than one.
