congress' representative function

Question 1

each member of congress has a direct mandate to represent their

Answer 1

constituents in their district/state and congress can also collectively claim the nation as a whole

Question 2

• this is especially important during

Answer 2

midterms
when the electorate has the oppurtunity to show their views on the presidents performance so far

Question 3

the trustee model

Answer 3

believes that elected representatives are given the responsibility to exercise their judgement and are held to account for their decisions at the next election
- arguable that most members of congress see their representative function in these terms , particularly senators who are elected for 6 years and therefore more insulated from the short term views of the population

Question 4

the delegate model

Answer 4

believes that representatives shouldn’t be free to exercise their own judgement , instead they should base their decision and voting on the wishes of their constituents
- can be argued HoR acts more along these lines of representation , as they have 2 year terms , allowing them to be more representative to the short term view of their districts

Question 5

the resemblance model

Answer 5

focuses on how descriptively representative a legislative body is of the population in terms of gender , ethnicity and other social and cultral factors
- important as different groups prioritise different issues and no groups should be excluded from power