Why do you have both a House of Representatives and a Senate?

Answer 1

The bicameral legislature was set up to end an argument between the small states and large states during the drafting of the constitution. The small states argued that they would not have any say in the government if the bigger states got more votes. However, the larger states like Virginia argued that because they had a larger population they deserved to have more votes in order to maintain true democracy.The House of Representatives and the Senate were created as a compromise to please both the small and large states. The House of Representatives has members based on population, and therefore larger states have more votes than smaller states. The Senate has an equal amount of members/votes (2) per state, this was implemented to ease the small states' concerns.

Answer 2

It's called the Connecticut Compromise. The Virginia Plan called for a legislature that was population-based, and would therefore give more delegates and more power to the larger states. The New Jersey Plan called for a legislature where every state, regardless of population, would have one vote, just as they did under the Articles of Confederation. For this reason, the Constitutional Convention settled on the Connecticut Compromise, creating a House of Representatives, apportioned by population, and a Senate, in which each state is equally represented.