Representation

Representation, term applied to the system under which legislative, executive, and judicial officials may be chosen by vote of the people. In most cases direct representation is used for legislative purposes alone. The United States is an exception in that the same principle is adopted in the case of many executive and judicial offices: The president is the direct representative of the people, and most state constitutions provide for the popular election of the governor, judges, and other officials. In England the political movements of the 17th century placed the supreme power in the hands of Parliament, which nominally represented the people. The Reform Bills of the 18th and 19th centuries made this representation real.

The first American colony to obtain a representative legislature was Virginia, the general assembly of which first met in 1619. The other colonies later obtained similar privileges. At that time, however, the executive was in most cases entirely independent of the people and responsible to the Crown or proprietary alone, and this situation was one of the main causes of the friction that led to the American Revolution.

In the U.S. Congress, the number of members in the House of Representatives is apportioned to each state according to population, after the completion of a national census conducted every ten years. Representatives are chosen either by the state electors at large or, generally, by the electors of the specific districts they are to represent. Each state, regardless of population, is also represented by two senators in the Senate, or upper house of Congress.