Question

Compare and contrast the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan regarding the three branches of government

Answer 1

The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan are different in how they represent each state. The Virginia Plan set about to have a 2 party legislative branch (similar to today with the house of representatives and senate). In this plan, the house of representatives would be elected by the people and each state would have the number of representatives proportional to that state's population (higher population means more representatives for that state). These representatives would then select individuals from each state to sit in the senate (again being proportional to the population of the state.)

The New Jersey Plan was proposed because smaller states felt that they would not have any say in decisions due to low numbers of representatives. This plan proposes that there would be a 1 party legislative branch where each state would have an equal, designated number of representatives elected by the people (each state would have 2 representatives for example).