Multi-Member Districts in Dade County: Study of a Problem and a Delegation

Abstract

THE ISSUE of single-member vs. multi-member districts for the choice of legislators in the American States has been the subject of a number of studies in the past decade. The present study is designed first to review this literature and the data it presents. Next, focusing on the Dade County (Miami) delegation in the 1965 Florida Legislature permits study of a multi-member delegation composed of two Senators and fourteen House members, all elected at large. The study of this delegation and of the reapportionment measure which was enacted brings to a focus pro and con arguments over single-member vs. multi-member districts. This issue, as a matter of fact, was one of the major ones of the 1965 Florida legislative session. The concepts of systems analysis and role theory will be employed in this article. David Easton's recent work, A Systems Analysis of Political Life provides us with a proposed dynamic model.' In this model situational data is regarded as a political input into the political system. This will be followed in this article, using a system adapted to the legislative process. This systems analysis is similar to that used by Herbert Jacobs in his chapter in the 1966 American Assembly volume}, State Legislatures in American Politics.2 Within the political system roles analysis is employed. In the field of legislative behavior, Wahlke, Eulau, et al. have effectively applied this concept in their book, The Legislative System.3