Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation, by Frances E. Lee and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, is a book that analyzes the behavior of United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Senators

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 based on the size of the state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

s they represent.

Sizing Up the Senate demonstrates that small-state Senators are much more likely to engage in pork barrel

Pork barrel

Pork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...

 politics than large-state Senators and are much more likely to have leadership positions. Sizing Up the Senate also empirically demonstrates that small states receive more money per capita

Per capita

Per capita is a Latin prepositional phrase: per and capita . The phrase thus means "by heads" or "for each head", i.e. per individual or per person...

 from the U.S. federal government

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 due to the spending formula for block grant

Block grant

In a fiscal federal form of government, a block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent...

s.

Sizing Up the Senate is a political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 book, but its first chapter deals with the history of the creation of the Senate, arguing that the Senate was not created by federalist

Federalist

The term federalist describes several political beliefs around the world. Also, it may refer to the concept of federalism or the type of government called a federation...

 theory, but out of the simple refusal of small states to go along with any United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 that did not grant them equal suffrage in one body of the national legislature.

Publication data

• Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999). Frances E. Lee and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, University of Chicago Press
  University of Chicago Press
  The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
  
  , ISBN 0-226-47006-7