United States Senate

== Criticism ==
{{See also|Democratic backsliding in the United States|Universal suffrage|}}

The Senate's structure gives states with smaller populations the same number of senators (two) as states with larger populations. Historian Daniel Wirls contends that this structure makes the Senate "non-democratic",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wirls |first=Daniel |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1248598962 |title=The Senate: from white supremacy to governmental gridlock |date=2021 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-4691-7 |location=Charlottesville |pages=2, 40, 44 |oclc=1248598962 |access-date=December 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208135031/https://search.worldcat.org/title/1248598962 |archive-date=December 8, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> while Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that the Senate is America's most minoritarian (undemocratic) institution.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Levitsky |first1=Steven |title=Tyranny of the Minority: why American democracy reached the breaking point |last2=Ziblatt |first2=Daniel |date=2023 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-593-44307-1 |edition= |location=New York |chapter=Chapter 6 |author-link=Steven Levitsky |author-link2=Daniel Ziblatt}}</ref> The disparity in population between the most and least populous states has grown over time. In 1790, Virginia had 10 times the population of Rhode Island, while California had 70 times the population of Wyoming in 2020.<ref name=":3" /> U.S. citizens in the [[District of Columbia statehood movement|District of Columbia]] and in [[U.S. territories]] have never been represented in the Senate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Non-voting members of Congress |url=http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Non-voting_members_of_Congress |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123015800/http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Non-voting_members_of_Congress |archive-date=November 23, 2010 |access-date=March 22, 2011 |website=[[OpenCongress]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Greve |first=Joan E. |date=May 3, 2021 |title='Our moment is now': can Washington DC statehood finally become a reality? |url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/03/washington-dc-statehood-51-stars |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213101351/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/03/washington-dc-statehood-51-stars |archive-date=February 13, 2023 |access-date=January 31, 2023 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> One analysis of democracies by Harvard professors Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky found that only Argentina and Brazil's upper chambers deviate further from the [[one person, one vote]] principle than the U.S. Senate does.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Ziblatt |first1=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Ziblatt |last2=Levitsky |first2=Steven |author-link2=Steven Levitsky |date=September 5, 2023 |title=How American Democracy Fell So Far Behind |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/american-constitution-norway/675199/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920224356/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/american-constitution-norway/675199/ |archive-date=September 20, 2023 |access-date=September 20, 2023 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> This disparity in representation between large and small states has increasingly favored Republicans since the 1960s,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Drutman |first=Lee |date=July 29, 2020 |title=The Senate Has Always Favored Smaller States. It Just Didn't Help Republicans Until Now. |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-senate-has-always-favored-smaller-states-it-just-didnt-help-republicans-until-now/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204212549/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-senate-has-always-favored-smaller-states-it-just-didnt-help-republicans-until-now/ |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |access-date=February 4, 2023 |website=FiveThirtyEight |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jentleson |first=Adam |date=April 12, 2021 |title=How to Stop the Minority-Rule Doom Loop |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/how-stop-minority-rule-doom-loop/618536/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206001607/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/how-stop-minority-rule-doom-loop/618536/ |archive-date=February 6, 2023 |access-date=February 6, 2023 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yglesias |first=Matthew |date=December 17, 2019 |title=American democracy's Senate problem, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/17/21011079/senate-bias-2020-data-for-progress |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206001604/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/17/21011079/senate-bias-2020-data-for-progress |archive-date=February 6, 2023 |access-date=February 6, 2023 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref> with [[David Wasserman]] estimating in 2018 that Democrats would need to keep winning the popular vote by more than 6% to maintain control of the Senate.<ref>{{Cite news |title=America's electoral system gives the Republicans advantages over Democrats |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/07/12/americas-electoral-system-gives-the-republicans-advantages-over-democrats |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206002856/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/07/12/americas-electoral-system-gives-the-republicans-advantages-over-democrats |archive-date=February 6, 2023 |access-date=February 6, 2023 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> Elizabeth Rusch and Daniel Lazare argue that the Senate's structure gives voters from small states disproportionate influence and allows them to benefit from disproportionate amounts of federal funding when compared to voters from larger states.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Rusch |first=Elizabeth |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124772479 |title=You call this democracy? : how to fix our government and deliver power to the people |date=2020 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-358-17692-3 |location=Boston |oclc=1124772479 |author-link=Elizabeth Rusch |access-date=December 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220502165944/http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124772479 |archive-date=May 2, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lazare |first=Daniel |date=December 2, 2014 |title=Abolish the Senate |url=https://jacobin.com/2014/12/abolish-the-senate/ |access-date=December 24, 2022 |website=Jacobin |language=en-US |archive-date=December 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220010807/https://jacobin.com/2014/12/abolish-the-senate/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

By the beginning of the 21st century, two-thirds of legislatures{{where|date=April 2024}} had become unicameral, with the remaining upper houses tending to become more representative and/or less powerful; in contrast, the U.S. Senate remained an outlier by not following what Ziblatt and Levitsky refer to as a democratizing trend.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Levitsky |first1=Steven |title=Tyranny of the Minority: why American democracy reached the breaking point |last2=Ziblatt |first2=Daniel |date=2023 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-593-44307-1 |edition= |location=New York |pages=4}}</ref><sup>:206-209</sup>