Final exam Flashcards
How many people in the House of reps
435, 2 year terms
How many in the senate
100, 6 year terms
Congressional district
geographic district where one official represents for the House
Reapportionment
reapportion how many representatives each state gets every ten years after cencus
Malapportionment
voting power of its citizens is different than voting power of another district = unfair
senate is very very malapportioned
One person, one vote rule
each person’s vote should have the same amount of power = no malapportionment
Redistricting
drawing districts so each district is the same size (in terms of population)
Gerrymandering
redistricting so your party benefits
minority- majority district
gerrymander a district where you can maximize the voting power of the minority
descriptive representation
how much the member of congress looks like (same demographic) the people who are representing
Substantive representation
member of congress represents the same policy issues as the people in their district
trustee
member of congress doesn’t just think about their demographic but does what is right
instructed delegate
will only vote for what their district wants/ what benefits the district
Rules committee
committee in the just the house that decides the rules to consider and debate for a specific bill
fillibuster
tactic used by senators to block a bill to hold the floor and speak- if there isn’t cloture
To prevent a decision being made
cloture
limiting the amount of time a person can speak and how long you can spend on a bill- must pass with 3/5 majority of the senate
limits each person to one hour and a total of 100 hours for the bill to be discussed after cloture is invoked
16 senators sign a petition for cloture and then 3/5 of senate must agree
conference committee
when theres a disagreement between the house and the senate in passing a bill
veto override
both house and senate disapprove with 2/3 majority vote in both chambers
difficult because only about half of each party occupies the senate
Why we hate congress but like our member
Congress never actually gets anything done. We like our member though because they represent us and they push for us
Earmarks
adding spending that only benefit a certain amount of people
instructed delegate could do this to benefit their district
Rucho vs common cause
courts concluded that courts cannot fix gerrymandering issues
President- chief executive
appointment of power
cabinet
executive orders
take care clause
take care clause
president shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed
Why does trump have lots of executive orders?
because his supporters want results on easy issues and to fulfill what he said he was going to do for his campaign
President- chief legislator
veto power- has help from offices for policy advice
hard to get anything passed by government- power to pursuade
President- political party leader
most powerful party official
has staff in charge of regulating political standing (approval rating)
Commander in chief and restraints
in charge of army and navy
constraint- only congress can declare war, congress determines defense spending