Bicameral legislature Flashcards
what is Bicameral legislature
Bicameral means that Congress has two houses: the House of Representative and the Senate. We have the two houses of Congress due to a compromise made by the Founding Fathers during the Constitutional Convention.
what is Parliament
an assembly of the representatives of a political nation or people, often the supreme legislative authority.
what is Descriptive representation
Descriptive representation is the idea that a group elects an individual to represent them who in their own characteristics mirror some of the more frequent experiences and outward manifestations of the group.
what is Substantive representation
Substantive representation occurs when representatives’ opinions and actions reflect the wishes, needs, and interests of the people they represent.
what is Trustee
an individual person or member of a board given control or powers of administration of property in trust with a legal obligation to administer it solely for the purposes specified.
what is delegate
a person sent or authorized to represent others, in particular an elected representative sent to a conference.
what is Majority minority district
A majority-minority district is an electoral district, such as a United States congressional district, in which the majority of the constituents in the district are racial or ethnic minorities (as opposed to Non-Hispanic whites in the U.S.).
what is Malapportionment
Malapportionment is the creation of electoral districts with divergent ratios of voters to representatives.
what is Marginal district
A marginal district is one in which a close election takes place, where the winner gets less than 55 percent of the vote. A safe district is one where the margin is at least 60 percent of the vote.
what is Gerrymandering
In representative democracies, gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve “cracking” or “packing”.
what is Wesbury vs. Sanders
The Georgia court case of Wesberry v. Sanders significantly expanded the concept of “one man, one vote” and is most often linked with the phrase. The court’s ruling on Wesberry v. Sanders explicitly stated that Congressional districts must be as equal in population as is practical.
what is Safe districts
A safe district is one where the margin is at least 60 percent of the vote. The percentage of the House districts that are considered safe is almost 90 percent.
what is Baker vs. Carr
A case in which the Court found that redistricting issues present justiciable questions, and in which the Court reframed its political question doctrine.
what is Shaw vs. Reno
Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in the area of redistricting and racial gerrymandering. After the 1990 census, North Carolina qualified to have a 12th district and drew it in a distinct snake-like manner in order to create a “majority-minority” Black district.
what is Miller vs. Johnson
Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900, was a United States Supreme Court case concerning “affirmative gerrymandering/racial gerrymandering”, where racial minority-majority electoral districts are created during redistricting to increase minority Congressional representation.
