congress (representation, legislation and oversight of executive) Flashcards
Descriptive representation -race
YES- Native americans make up 1% in congress and 1% in population
NO- African Americans 9% in congress and 13% population
Hispanics 9% in congress and 18% population
descriptive representation- Gender
NO- women make up 51% of population
27% of seats in HOR and 24% in senate
Ideological representation
YES- Ideological Representation: Parties are broad churches and represent all sides of the political spectrum to get more voters through things like caucuses.
E.g Freedom Caucus represents the far right side of the Republican party whereas the
Republican Governance Group represents a centrist/centre-right view
NO- There are only two parties and independents are usually unsuccessful.
3 independents in the Senate but they’re in Democratic caucuses.
Geographical representation
EVERY STATE GETS 2 SENATORS E.g Hawaii is an island state located away from the mainland us and it has two senators like every other state
Furthermore, states are given HOR to reflect the geographical variations
BUT
The senators allocated to each state is the not proportional because states can have very different population sizes such as california with a population size of 39mil and wyoming with 580k meaning their not being equally represented
congress effectively carried out legislation- LEGISLATION IS SWIFT AND EFFECTIVE
2020 CARES ACT as coronavirus response. introduced march 18, passed in senate unanimously march 25 and signed by Trump march 27
BUT
In situations of divided government. legislation is hard to pass
E.g the 2018 35 day government shutdown because of Trumps refusal to accept 2019 fiscal year appropriations bill (over us mexico border) which shut down 9 govt depts with 800,000 employees and costed the US government $11 billion
Congress effectively passed legislation- checks and balances ensures the quality of legislation
This can be seen through the republican dominated congress in 2010 where it was hard for Obama to fulfil his policy objectives in healthcare reform, immigration etc.
An example of this was the gruelling passage of the ACA
BUT
this is partisanship in legislation
For example, in 2019 there was another government shutdown over disagreements over border security functioning
February 9 to february 29
Congress passed legislation effectively because it represents
e.g minority majority districts increased the number of minorities in government (45 blacks)
but
not representative of minority ideological groups. 2 independents in senate but part of republican caucauses
also geographical
so electorate is not represented in legislation
oversight of executive- treaty ratification
e.g 1992 clinton nuclear test ban treaty
2012 protection of people with disabilities in un
Veto override
2016 obama vetoes justice from sponsors of terrorism act which is overturned in senate
power of the purse
government shutdown in 2018-19 over trump border wall
2015 iran nuclear deal