One-person-one-vote equality rests on a contested image of legislatures as mirrors of popular will.
Evidence
The notion that approximate equality in voting population ought to be taken as the overriding norm of fairness in legislative districting is sanetimes based on the conception of the legislature as the embodiment of the public will which ought, therefore, to reflect accurately the various attitudes and interests that people have. Compare the traditional conception of French public law that the legislature is an “emanation” from the people, and, indeed, the legal equivalent of the people themselves. … The legislature is an instrument, is it not for arriving at a general consensus and not an automatic Gallup poll for recording a consensus already arrived at? — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 3755
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces the French ‘emanation’ doctrine as a contrasting theoretical frame for what a legislature is, then dismantles it.
- XREF: connects to: Courts cannot supply the constitutional wisdom a people lacks. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3751; Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 406; Modern theories expose legislatures as not purely public-interested bodies. — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 107 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Equality must govern politics even though it is technically a fiction
#responds-to(0.80) - Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy
#contradicts(0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406 - Modern theories expose legislatures as not purely public-interested bodies.
#qualifies(0.72) — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 107