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PO111 - Intro to American Politics > Chapter 6 - Congress: The First Branch > Flashcards

Chapter 6 - Congress: The First Branch Flashcards

1
Q

What are the different models of representation? (4)

A
  1. Trustee
  2. Delegate
  3. Descriptive
  4. Agency
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2
Q

What is the Trustee model of representation based on?

A

What the Member of Congress thinks is best for the constituency.

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3
Q

What is the Delegate model of representation based on?

A

The preferences of the constituents.

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4
Q

What is the Descriptive model of representation based on?

A

Based on group identities: race, gender, ethnicity, etc.

Majority minority districts drawn to facilitate the election of minority groups.

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5
Q

What is the Agency model of representation based on?

A
  • Representatives are held accountable to their constituents
  • Mechanism of accountability is elections: constituents have the power to hire (elect) and fire (not reelect) their representatives.
  • Electoral Connection
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6
Q

What are the Fenno Home style circles? (4)

A
  1. Geographic constituency
  2. Reelction constituency
  3. Primary constituency
  4. Personal constituency
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7
Q

What is the geographic constituency circle?

A

Area and all of the people/electorate in said constituency

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8
Q

What is the reelection constituency?

A

Supporters of candidate in the last election

-people who may vote for MC again

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9
Q

What is the primary constituency?

A
  • within the party, who’s going to vote for you if there’s another republican/democratic candidate in the primary election
  • strongest supporters from within the party
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10
Q

What is the personal constituency?

A

Closest supporters – family, friends, door knockers, donors, political advisors etc

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11
Q

Power of the House:

A
  1. More centralized - Speaker of the House sets agenda
  2. Stronger leaders - have control over different committees
  3. Specialists on committees
  4. Smaller, more homogenous districts (less diverse)
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12
Q

Power of the Senate:

A
  1. More deliberative - less rigid and organized (hierarchy is weaker)
  2. Senators have more floors rights than reps
  3. Members have individual power (can filibuster)
  4. Generalists in place of specialists - fewer senators so must have wider policy knowledge
  5. Districts are states therefore larger
  6. “more elite set of people” - not elected by the people
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13
Q

Why do incumbents have an edge?

A
  1. Casework: MCs can help constituents navigate federal programs and bureaucracy
  2. Patronage: MCs can help constituents get jobs of federal grants, do favors for constituents
  3. Pork-Barrel legislation: Appropriations that provide extra (unneeded) funds to districts for special projects
  4. Franking: MCs can send “free” mail to their constituents about their work in Congress
  5. Getting elected once means you’re more likely to do it again – already been vetted, shown you can get voted in, etc.
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14
Q

What’s the sophomore surge?

A

Difference in margin of victory between first and second election. (the amount you win by shows how incumbency helps)

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15
Q

What’s the retirement slump?

A

Difference in margin of victory between incumbent’s last election and same-party’s candidate in the next election

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16
Q

How many seats in the House of Representatives?

A

435 seats.

17
Q

How many senators?

A

100 (2 for each state)

18
Q

How often is there a nationwide census? Why?

A

Every 10 years

  • Count the number of people in the USA (not just citizens)
  • Apportion seats to each state based on population
  • State legislatures redraw congressional district lines
  • Districts in each state must have equal population (“one person one vote”)
19
Q

What is gerrymandering?

A

Apportionment of voters in districts to give an unfair advantage to one political party.

20
Q

What is the Senate leadership like?

A
  • President of the Senate (the VP – Joe Biden atm, Democrat even though republican majority in the Senate)
  • President Pro Tempore (officially president of the Senate, a very symbolic job. Fewer powers to the person residing over the chamber)
  • Majority Party leader has power to call bills, set agenda, schedule votes and manage the Senate day to day.
21
Q

What is the House leadership like?

A

Elected leader of the majority party is proposed as Speaker of the House

22
Q

What is casework?

A

An effort by members of Congress to gain the trust and support of constituents by providing personal services. One important type of casework consists of helping constituents obtain favorable treatment from the federal bureaucracy.

23
Q

What is patronage?

A

The resources available to higher officials, usually opportunities to make partisan appointments to offices and confer grants, licenses, or special favors to supporters.

24
Q

What is pork-barrel legislation?

A

The appropriations made by legislative bodies for local projects that often are not needed but are created so that local representatives can carry their home district in the next election.

25
Q

What do party leaders do?

A

o Control Committee assignments
o Public face of party
o Fundraising: leadership PACs
o Set agenda. Speaker assigns bills to committee

26
Q

What are standing committees?

A
  • Permanent committees with specific jurisdictions.
  • Members (mostly) keep their seats on the same committees over time (property right)
  • Committee Chairs are powerful; preside over committees; determined (mostly) by seniority
  • Democrats have no term limits on chairing committees, however the Republicans say you can’t be chair for more than 3 terms (congresses)
27
Q

What are committee powers?

A
  1. Gatekeeping authority
  2. Proposal Power
  3. After-the-fact Authority
  4. Oversight
28
Q

What is gatekeeping authority?

A

The power to decide if a policy change will be considered

29
Q

What is proposal power?

A

The power to bring a proposal before the chamber

30
Q

What is After-the-fact authority?

A

The power to influence a proposal after it has been passed by the chamber.

31
Q

What is oversight (in regards to committee powers)?

A

Committees oversee executive implementation of policies.

32
Q

What are the jobs of congressional staff?

A
  1. Formulate/draft proposals
  2. Organize hearings
  3. Work with administrative agencies
  4. Negotiate with lobbyists
  5. Approximately 11,000 personal staff, 2,000 committee staff
  6. Staff Agencies
33
Q

What are the 11 steps of the legislative process?

A
  1. Member introduces bill on the floor
  2. Speaker refers the bill to the committee with jurisdiction
  3. Leadership decides if/when the bill will be considered
  4. Floor Debate
  5. Vote
  6. Send to other chamber
  7. Other chamber repeats steps 1-5
  8. If both chambers pass different versions of the same bill, go to conference
  9. Both chambers must approve the conference committee bill
  10. Bill sent to President
  11. Veto override if President vetoes the bill.
34
Q

How do you end a debate?

A

A cloture - requires a 3/5 vote in Senate

35
Q

What is the purpose of the committee system? What are the positives and negatives of this?

A

Splits congressmen into smaller groups to allow them to specialize.
+They then know more about a certain topic and can effectively help legislation (e.g. funds should be spent on specific projects)
+better legislation as higher level of knowledge
+easy for lobbyists to know who to target.
-don’t know more about other areas of policies.

36
Q

What advantages do incumbents have? Why do Representatives have a greater incumbency advantage than Senators?

A

Incumbents are more likely to get re-elected

-Name recognition, fundraising, have donors, etc.

37
Q

What does Mayhew argue motivates members of Congress? What behaviors do MCs take to achieve their goal?

A
  1. Re-election
  2. Advertising themselves, credit-claiming - being able to say “I did this for you..” (BUT, this can lead to big delays in legislation, want policies to pass quickly so they can claim credit)
38
Q

What is the median voter theorem? What does it predict about voting in Congress?

A
  • Person in the middle of the spectrum will have the most sway.
  • more moderate bills are likely to get passed
  • predicts the way a vote will go
39
Q

Should legislators behave as trustees or delegates?

A

trustees: say what they think will be best for the constituency
delegates: represent constituency to the best of their ability.
1. Trustees might be better for foreign policy and delegates might be better for domestic policy.
Legislators have more knowledge than the average citizen about foreign policy, so would be better for them to make their own decisions.

PO111 - Intro to American Politics (10 decks)

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