Although the US Constitution solves many of the practical problems of running a democracy, it is vague on the question of how to apportion the US House of Representatives. Instead, the Constitution leaves the details of this essentially mathematical problem to the political process. This omission has resulted in the tumultuous history described in Chapter 12. The lack of explicit instructions for apportionment seems like an oversight, since it is doubtful that the framers of the Constitution realized how difficult the problem is.