The New Jersey Plan was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government proposed by William Paterson. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which would have created a single legislative body with population based representation. The less populous states were opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the larger states, and so proposed an alternate plan that would have given one vote per state for equal representation under one legislative body.

When the Connecticut Compromise was constructed, the New Jersey Plan's legislative body was used as the model for the United States Senate.

See also

• Virginia Plan - Proposal for strong central government, one legislative body, three-banch government and population based on representation.
• Connecticut Compromise - "Great Compromise" proposed two houses: a lower house which was elected in proportion to population, and an upper house, where the people of each state, regardless of size, collectively would have equal representation resulting in the current United States House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, respectively.