What form of representation was favored by the Virginia Plan?

Prepare for the Arizona US Government Test with interactive quizzes and detailed answers. Enhance your understanding of the U.S. government structure and improve your chances of passing.

The Virginia Plan favored proportional representation, which means that the representation in the legislature would be based on a state's population or the amount of financial contributions it made to the central government. This approach was designed to give more populous states greater influence in the legislative process, reflecting the idea that a government should take into account the varying sizes of its constituencies.

This concept was significant during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, as larger states argued that their greater populations entitled them to more representatives, while smaller states sought equal representation regardless of size. The preference for proportional representation ultimately contributed to debates leading to the creation of a bicameral legislature, where one chamber (the House of Representatives) would indeed have representatives based on population, while the other chamber (the Senate) ensured equal representation for each state.

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