CONGRESS - Essay plans; representation Flashcards
1a) CONGRESS IS EFFECTIVE IN FULFILLING ITS REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTION
Frequency of elections means that representatives are held accountable
Incumbents lose their seats too!
2018 mid-terms = 30+ lost their seats.
Max Rose in the 2018 congressional elections in N.Y’s 11th district of Staten Island.
This district is the most conservative and so this was a surprise win for the Democrats.
Why? Because this district was, in Rose’s words, ‘a place that votes for the person, not the party’
1b) CONGRESS IS INEFFECTIVE IN FULFILLING ITS REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTION
FPTP + high incumbency rates indicate that elections usually have the same outcome
Congressional stagnation is an established American theory dedicated to explaining the high re-election of incumbents to the House of Reps which developed in the 1970s.
2020 general election = 93% of incumbents WON their re-election bid.
2a) CONGRESS IS EFFECTIVE IN FULFILLING ITS REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTION
Bipartisanship
Bipartisan legislation such as Juneteenth 2021 = (remember Senate split between 48 Dems and 50 Reps) legislation passed unanimously by Senate and by 415-14 vote to make June-teenth a federal holiday.
Bipartisan legislation highlights Congress is willing to compromise in order to fulfil voters’ needs. This follows the delegate model of representation.
2b) CONGRESS IS INEFFECTIVE IN FULFILLING ITS REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTION
Hyper-partisanship
Voting on party lines has increased!
Bipartisanship is rare - hyper partisanship means that members fails to compromise on their own views because their vote has considerable power in Congress.
Infrastructure Bill 2021 passed - only 19 Senate Reps and 13 House Reps
3b) CONGRESS IS EFFECTIVE IN FULFILLING ITS REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTION
Large no. of ways to contact and check constituents and representation on views
You do not need to be a social makeup to adequately represent the electorate.
Bernie Sanders is an example of this!
He is the US Senator for Vermont since 2007.
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) have been giving Sanders a 100% rating for his civil rights tracking record.
3a) CONGRESS IS INEFFECTIVE IN FULFILLING ITS REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTION
Most members of Congress are still white men… though this is improving
117th Congress:
White men represent 30% of the population but 62% of Congress officeholders.
POC represent 40% of the US population but only 13% of office-holders.
