chapter 13: congress

Question 1

parliamentary candidates are…(differs from congress how?)

Answer 1

1. selected by party personally (often persuades the party to put their name on the ballot)
2. voters choose between national parties
3. parliament selects a prime minister and other leaders
4. party members usually vote together
5. principal work is debating national issues
6. members of parliament have little power, low pay, and few staff members

Question 2

congressional candidates are…(differs from parliament how?)

Answer 2

1. little party control over their nomination
2. vote is for candidate, not party
3. members of congress are independent and reps of districts/states are a separate branch
4. they do not choose executive
5. power is decentralized
6. party discipline is limited
7. principal work is representation HOR
8. members have a great deal of power, high pay, resources

Question 3

framers intent for congress

Answer 3

1. representation and bicameralism HOR and Senate
2. expected congress to be the dominant institution and wield most powers bc it represented the people, and they wanted to keep the power there
3. essential for sustaining federalism
4. making seperation of powers
5. checks and balances
6. “the first branch”

Question 4

centralization

Answer 4

strong power in one branch

Question 5

decentralization

Answer 5

fracture and spread powers so not 1 branch is too powerful

Question 6

centralization vs decentralization

Answer 6

trend toward decentralization
-large size of house makes it difficult for the house to be powerful without leadership, but strong leadership will reduce the power that individual members have in congress(senate does not face these problems, it is small enough that it can run without giving much authority to any small group leaders)

Question 7

incumbency advantage in HOR

Answer 7

-most house districts are safe (more than senate) because the house represents a small group of people and can persuade them easier. because the senate has more power, so people look into and do more research on the candidates

Question 8

why do incumbents have an advantage?

Answer 8

• name recognition: media, travel, fed money, franking
• resources: franking, expenses, staffers
• funding: their big donors continue to donate and they have a huge base to work with
• pork projects: they can get fed money for special projects in their districts
• advertise: accomplishments as an incumbent

Question 9

do members represent their voters? types of representation…

Answer 9

• representational: they represent what their voters want to get reelected
• organizational: take cues from colleagues and look at caucuses to organize themselves to please fellow members of congress
• attitudinal: focus on ideology, what the people want, increases party polarization because they stick to their ideological base, results in gerrymandering, primary elections vote for a stronger party member

Question 10

organization of congress…senate

Answer 10

• VP is the president of
• president pro tempore serves when the VP is out
• majority and minority leaders: elected leaders to schedule bills
• party whips: keep leaders informed, round up votes
• party policy committee: schedule and sets priorities
• democratic steering committee and republican committee on committees: assign people to committees on seniority basis

Question 11

organization of congress…house

Answer 11

• speaker of the house: more power than prez of senate. they recognize who gets to speak, rules on motions
• majority and minority leaders: elected leaders to schedule bills
• party whips: keep leaders informed, round up votes
• party policy committee: schedule and sets priorities
• democratic steering committee and republican committee on committees: assign people to committees on seniority basis

Question 12

congressional committees basic tasks

Answer 12

• consider bills or legislative proposals
• oversee executive agencies
• conduct investigations

Question 13

types of congressional committees

Answer 13

1. standing committees: permanent in both house and senate ie education, defense, etc, assess bills, only committee that can propose legislation by reporting a bill out to house or senate
2. select committees: temporary and brought up to conduct investigations as necessary
3. joint: senate and house members join
4. conference: a type of joint commiittee, if house and senate cant agree on a bill, they work on the compromise

Question 14

functions of staffers

Answer 14

• constituency service: will do things for representatives service
• legislative functions: briefing bills, research on a bill, help decision making, draft bills
• entrepreneurial function: get name out, keep in touch w constituents, organize schedule
• increase in number of staffers because most legislative work is done in chamber of congress, leads to a more individualistic congress
• staff agencies are created to deal w increase in staff

Question 15

ideas to reduce the power and perks of incumbents to help nonincumbents

Answer 15

• regulate franking privilege
• place congress under the law: congressional accountability act 1995: does not exempt congress from peoples labor laws, office of compliance: oversees the act

Question 16

argument against “trimming pork”

Answer 16

Pork: using federal money for local projects to get votes, huge disadvantage to nonincumbents

• do not trim pork because…
  1. it may not help the budget much because of mandatory spending on entitlement programs
  2. pork has already been trimmed some
  3. difficult to determine what is pork at times
  4. may interfere with compromise (log rolling: if you pass this, then ill do this for you)

Question 17

iron triangles

Answer 17

made up of legislative committees, interest groups, and bureaucratic agencies

• they focus on an issue and all work together
• -legis gives access, policy and appointments to interest groups. interest groups give contributions and info to legis committees.
• -interest group gives lobbying and jobs to bureaucratic agencies. bureaucratic agencies give programs, contracts, and regulations to interest groups.
• -bureaucratic agencies give constituent benefits to legis committees. legis committees give jurisdiction, budget, and promotions to bure. agencies.

Question 18

Congress today

Answer 18

is the most unpopular branch of government, but the most important

• people think it is the “broken branch” that cant address the nations most pressing problems in an effective way
• paradox: most americans disapprove of congress yet routinely reelect their own members to serve in it
• congress is home to ideologically distinct political parties that are unified, but not near the unity in parliaments

Question 19

principle work of congress

Answer 19

representation and action, most of which takes place in committees

Question 20

caucuses

Answer 20

• a growing rival to the parties as a source of policy leadership
• an association of members of congress created to advocate a political ideology or to advance a regional, ethnic, or economic interest