When the constituion of the United States of America was first drafted, each state was allowed to elect two senators into the US Congress, which is the highest legislative body that makes laws for the entire country.
This seemed to be a good approach - the people elect their state legislators and these legislators could be counted on to elect two most suitable people to represent their state in the US Congress.
This approach led to a corrupt practices in some states. Some rich people offered bribes, subtly or openly, to the legislators to elect them into Congress It was easy to bribe a few dozen legislators.
This corrupt practice was quite bad. A change was made to the US Constitution to allow the people to elect their members of Congress directly. This replaces the election through the state legislature.
The experience of America showed the danger of giving too much power to the legislature. They could make bad decisions and pass bad laws. They could be influenced by corrupt practices.
We cannot trust our legislature on making major decisions affecting our long term future. We need some of the major decisions to be passed to the people through a referendum. We need to be more active in deciding on the people to be elected into our Parliament.
This seemed to be a good approach - the people elect their state legislators and these legislators could be counted on to elect two most suitable people to represent their state in the US Congress.
This approach led to a corrupt practices in some states. Some rich people offered bribes, subtly or openly, to the legislators to elect them into Congress It was easy to bribe a few dozen legislators.
This corrupt practice was quite bad. A change was made to the US Constitution to allow the people to elect their members of Congress directly. This replaces the election through the state legislature.
The experience of America showed the danger of giving too much power to the legislature. They could make bad decisions and pass bad laws. They could be influenced by corrupt practices.
We cannot trust our legislature on making major decisions affecting our long term future. We need some of the major decisions to be passed to the people through a referendum. We need to be more active in deciding on the people to be elected into our Parliament.
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