4 Congress Flashcards
1
Q
bicameral congress
A
- 2 chambers with a presidential system that’s separate from the legislative and executive
- chambers are almost identical in power, both functioning the same (like the legislative process and oversight standpoints)
2
Q
House of Representatives
A
- re-elected every 2 years
- 435 seats (218 is the threshold for a majority)
3
Q
Senate
A
- re-elected every 6 years (1/3=33 senators are re-elected every 2 years but each serve 6 years)
- 2 senators/state = 100 senators (51 is the majority threshold)
4
Q
majority of the House/Senate
A
- determines how the House is ran (since there aren’t many rules for operation)
- allows the party to decide the Speaker
5
Q
independents
A
- announce which party to be counted with
- mostly applies to the Senate
6
Q
bill
A
proposed legislation
7
Q
legislative process
A
- a bill is introduced in either chamber (just not by the president)
- the bill is read and sent to one or more (specialized) (sub)committee(s), which changes it
- committee decides to endorse or not, then reintroduces it to the chamber
- the bill is put to a vote, and is moved to the other chamber, where the preceding processes apply
- since the other chamber revises the bill, it must be changed thru a reconciliation committee (comprised of members from both chambers)
- the final bill is sent to both chambers, and if it passes, it’s sent to the president
- the president has veto to pass or kill the bill
- the bill becomes law if approved
8
Q
filibuster
A
senators can apply this on a bill, meaning it cannot pass unless 60 senators vote to override it
9
Q
why did partisan politics intensify?
A
Newt Gingrich (former Republican Speaker of the House in 1994) + Fox News (1996) = 1996 increase of political polarization
10
Q
Newt Gingrich
A
- he argued that Democrats stayed in power since Republicans were working with them
- this made it look like Congress didn’t need to be changed, so breaking Congress would allow change of power
- argued for Republican candidates that didn’t want to work with Democrats (partisan)
11
Q
primaries
A
pre-election elections, wherein a riding nominee is voted in by their party
12
Q
gerrymandering
A
- manipulating the boundaries of a constituency to maximize the number of seats a party can win
- whoever’s in charge of a state draws the map to maximize the number of winnable seats
- when you run for a gerrymandered seat, you only need to worry about primaries
13
Q
Fox News
A
- media coverage traditionally tried to be bipartisan
- by being totally Republican, Fox News revolutionized news coverage
- plays a role in votes, so this drives Republicans to be more right-wing
14
Q
MSNBC
A
purely left-wing channel made by the Democrats in response to Fox News
15
Q
the fundamental problem in the 1970s
A
- the American Dream stopped being attractive to most ppl
- the Dream is about social mobility but it starts to halt since real wages haven’t risen outside of the top 10%
- there’s a huge amount of dissatisfaction stemming from social barriers
