The Paradox of Representation

It has long been taken for granted that legislative representation is an asset, something of which more is always better than less, all else equal. No, sometimes less is better than more though all else be equal. This paradox can occur under naive, sophisticated, and cooperative voting. From a model of distributive politics I deduce that a strong version must occur in all but special cases. The paradox refutes an assumption of many electoral-system studies, offers a new explanation of discrepancies between public opinion and public policy, challenges classical approaches to political analysis, including pluralism and Marxism, and shows that "fair representation" is not a requirement of justice.