While he was working on the U.S. Constitution, James Madison realized there was a pretty fundamental part of state governments that seemed useless to regulate. In the Federalist Papers, he noted, “No political problem is less susceptible of a precise solution than that which relates to the number most convenient for a representative legislature; nor is there any point on which the policy of the several states is more at variance.”

Hundreds of years later, states are no closer to a consensus on what makes a legislature successful, writes Katie Meyer , WITF-WHYY for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives recently approved a bill that could potentially amend the state Constitution to shrink its own numbers.

At 203 members in the House and 50 in the Senate, the commonwealth has the largest full-time legislature in the country. And lawmakers are paid well — they have the second-highest average salaries in the nation, behind only California’s much-smaller legislature.

To read the complete story, click here.

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