ETVT Congress is a Representative institution Flashcards
Descriptive representation
The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever, and the number of women is also at an all-time high.
133 BAME members, 20 years prior the number was 67.
Women hold 149 seats, and make up 27% of the total.
The number of congresswomen is constantly increasing, with 22 joining the House in January, while it also continues to become more and more ethnically diverse.
Discriptive representation is poor
It could be argued that legislators are massively unrepresentative of their constituents in terms of gender and races, only if congress is descriptively representative will they uphold fairness and democracy.
Congress is less diverse than the nation as a whole, because in the 116th congress women only made up 27% of congress oppose to 50% of the population, furthermore the average age remained 59 years oppose to the 38 US average. Christian members of congress are still massively over representative, with 91%, oppose to only 70% of the population.
Legislators effectively represent their constituents
Congress serves their constituents, there are elections every two years for House members and every 6 year for senators, therefore they can be held accountable to their voters.
In the US the incumbent tends to have a advantage, more often then not most congressional members leave the house and senate voluntarily, this suggests that their voters are actively reflecting them and therefore they are affectively representing their constituents, in the 2000 midterms for example 97.8% of house members were reacted.
The fact that incumbents are always at an advantage for re-election, and are routinely re-elected suggests that they are successful in bringing forward their constituents demands.
Delegate model – theory that someone is chosen to act on behalf of others, therefore they make their decisions mostly with the interests of their constituents in mind. This theory is arguably very convincing, because a congressperson’s success is very closely linked to the popularity that they have with their constituents. If they want to retain their job, then they need to satisfy their constituent’s demands.
Pork Barrel politics for example is spending which is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes, in 2019 over $15.3 billion was spent on pork barrel politics.
Residents of Boston has there needs met with huge amounts of investment of $14 billion to move 3.5 miles of highway underground, furthermore, $2.8m was allocated to an arts programme in Washington DC in 2018.
The fact that so much money is being spent on pork barrel politics every year suggests that politicians feel accountable to their constituents, and therefore aim to get funding for state projects in order to help them get re-elected
Different examples – Joe Manchin opposed the Build Back Better Act in 2022, partly because of his own ideological position, but also because he represents lots of conservative democrats, and also has lots of workers in fossil fuel industry, West Virginia is the 4 largest energy producer in the US.
12 Republicans voted against the Tax cuts and Jobs act 2017, they were part of states, California and New Jersey which had tax reduction limits meaning they would have to pay more taxation as a result.
Senate majority leader in 2018 was unable to persuade 3 republican senators to repeal Obamacare, this meant they would likely lose in the senate and the bill wasn’t even voted on.
Legislators dont effectively represent their constituents
Could also talk about the fundraising advantage and campaign finance which incumbents have, as well as gerrymandering, two important factors which shape electoral outcomes, therefore making Congress less representative.
Incumbents are statistically more likely to be re-elected, so they find it easier to fundraise. In turn, this serves to limit competition between candidates, and prevent adequate constituency representation, because large amounts of money is needed to be successful, making it difficult for non-incumbents to run, and the use of money in elections also may serve to take the constituents out of the equation.
Legislators become obligated to serving big-money donors through their actions in Congress, because ultimately their backing is more important than the opinions of some of their constituents. NRA for example.
Gerrymandering serves to further the competitive advantage of candidates, this is deliberate shaping of congressional districts to give one party a political advantage, state legislatures have the opportunity to re-draw the boundaries every 10 years.
For example North Carolina is a example of voter suppression, in the 2020 congressional elections the democrats saw a majority of voters support their candidates and yet the majority of seats were one by the Republicans.
Hyper partisanship in recent years, this has meant that congressmen more often then not will vote along with their party despite the views of others.
