Congressional Representation & Constituents

Brian Frederick is an assistant professor of political science at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts.

• 1. Why Study the Size of the House? 2. Debating the Size of the House 3. The Growth of House District Populations and Electoral Competition 4. Constituents: How Many is Too Many? 5. House Constituency Size and Voting Patterns 6. Public Opinion on the Size of the House 7. The Size of the House: Does it Really Matter?

"Congressional Representation and Constituents is an interesting and provocative book. It raises some fascinating questions, reviews some largely forgotten history, and comes to a controversial conclusion." - L. Marvin Overby, The Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol. 17, 4, November 2011"Brian Frederick has written a comprehensive and compelling argument for increasing the size of the House of Representatives. Set in the Constitution at no more than one House member per 30,000 people, there are now more than 700,000 constituents in every House district. Frederick outlines the representational costs of freezing the size of the House for nearly a century. While critics will certainly disagree, they will not be able to ignore this thoughtful book." —David T. Canon, University of Wisconsin, Madison"This interesting, careful, and rigorous study sheds much new light on a fundamental issue of democratic representation too often overlooked by contemporary scholars and reformers." —Frances E. Lee, University of Maryland"Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections." - J. F. Kraus, CHOICE (July 2010)"[T]he empirical richness of this study makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of how constituency size influences the representation we receive from members of Congress. Scholars of political institutions are well advised to consider Frederick’s argument and the evidence he brings to bear in its defense." - Mark Oleszek, Congress & the Presidency, 38.2, 243-245