Population‑per‑Legislator Power Metric

Assess democratic responsiveness by tracking population per legislator and dollars spent per legislator. Montgomery County (≈1M people, 11 councilors; ≈$7.6B budget) yields far higher ratios than Switzerland’s Canton of Bern (1M people, 160 councilors; ≈$17B budget), implying weaker citizen leverage in the U.S. The argument extends nationally via the frozen 435‑seat House, pushing per‑member constituencies to ~800,000. — This offers a concrete, comparable yardstick for institutional reform debates about representation, scale, and local control.