What makes the us constitution undemocratic

It's the way the nation's founders wanted it. The two-chambered Congress, with a House of Representatives and a Senate, was a result of the "Great Compromise" between the large and small states during the Constitutional Convention. Seats in the House of Representatives are determined by proportional representation, but every state has equal influence in the Senate.

As the US has grown, the contrast has become particularly stark. California's 40 million residents, for instance, elect 53 members of its House delegation, while the entirety of Wyoming, population ,, has one. Both states, however, have two seats in the Senate.

Then there are the residents of US territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, as well as the District of Columbia with a population by itself greater than Wyoming's , who have no congressional representation. While the entire membership of the House of Representatives stand for election every two years, the framers of the constitution designed the Senate to be less responsive to popular will.

Members of the upper chamber of Congress serve six-year terms, staggered so only one-third of the seat body comes up at a time. In an apocryphal story, George Washington once explained to Thomas Jefferson that the Senate was like a saucer into which the hot tea of the House could be poured to cool. In fact, the Senate was once even less democratic than it is now. Prior to a constitutional amendment, senators were chosen by state legislators, not American voters.

This year, thanks to special elections, 35 Senate seats are up for a vote. Of that number, Democrats and Democratic-friendly independents are defending 26 of them - including 10 in states Mr Trump won in The reality, then, is that while the political winds could be blowing strongly to the left, the Republican Party still has an opportunity to hold - or gain - ground in the chamber that has the sole power to confirm executive and judicial appointments and ratify international treaties.

Residents of 17 states will be sitting on the sidelines for one of the most meaningful political battles of the year. And in the states that do cast ballots, some voters will have more of a say in the outcome than others.

November could very well become an inflection point in Donald Trump's presidency. If it is, however, it will be a result of the voices of a minority of Americans being heard. Image source, Getty Images. Here are some reasons why.

Low turnout. Voter suppression. Why US mid-term elections matter US mid-term elections in eight charts. Share: Facebook Twitter Email Print page. Voting Rights Again during the drafting of the Constitution the voting rights of women and minorities were not protected by Constitutional law and took many years to come to fruition.

Electoral College Representation in the Electoral College is not proportional due to the addition of two extra seats as a result of the Senators for that state. Representation in the Senate Each state has two senators regardless of size, which Dahl argues is undemocratic as smaller states have an increased prominence than they would otherwise have.

Election of Senators When writing the Constitution, the Senate was to be appointed by the states rather than elected. Judicial Power Judges can rule on the constitutionality of laws and decrees, and combined with the life tenure and high barriers to removal make them inherently undemocratic.

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