Midterm 2 Flashcards
Theories of Representation
○ Elected officials have principle-agent problem with their constituents.
- Elected representatives are agents of their constituents, make decisions
- Representatives held accountable bu their constituents
○ Delegate
- Representative votes according to the preferences of the constituents
○ Trustee
- Representative votes based on what they think is the right thing to do/what’s best for their constituents
Theories of Representation Extended
- Descriptive
○ Representatives share characteristics with their constituents
○ Often presumes substantive representation - Substantive
○ Representatives share policy preferences with their constituents
○ Realization of political needs; some type of redistribution - Symbolic
○ Descriptive representation void of much substantive impact
No redistribution of public good, no regulatory action
Getting to Congress
- Few limits to run for office (age, citizenship, residency)
- You need:
- Money (H-1.7M, S-11M, rarely swings elections)
- Organization (individuals run own campaigns, staff can make/break election (media experts, fundraisers, etc.))
- Message (Campaign must resonate with enough voters
- Strategy (coalition-building, open seat race)
Staying in Congress
- Permanent Campaign
○ Representatives are primarily concerned with reelection
§ Institutional structures of Congress may incentivize this
○ Constantly fundraise money, etc. to ensure reelection
§ Incumbency advantages - Home style
○ Spend a lot of time back in their district or state with constituents.
§ Sone don’t have a Washington, DC residence at all
○ Build trust
○ Collect feedback
Incumbency Advantages
- Incumbency: holding a political office for which one is running
- Incumbents usually win more than 90% of congressional races
- Advantages
○ Name recognition
○ Fundraising
○ Track record
§ Committee service
§ Pork-barrel legislation
§ Patronage
○ In state legislatures: running unopposed
Congressional Apportionment
- Reapportionment
○ The reallocation of congressional districts among states to account fot population shifts, based on Census
○ Calculation for Reapportionment are conducted by the Census Bureau, as directed by Congress - Redistricting
○ Reorganization of the boundaries of House districts following the US census, constitutionally required every ten years
○ Lines are redrawn to ensure that each House member represents roughly the same number of constituents
○ Latest redistricting is currently taking place
Redistricting and Gerrymandering
- State and local laws mainly govern redistricting
- Redistricting criteria (may) include:
○ Equal population
○ Compactness
○ Contiguity
○ Partisan fairness
○ Racial fairness - Redistricting done either by state legislatures or independent commissions
- Gerrymandering: redrawing an election district in a way that gives advantages too one party
Two Chambers
Qualities of Each
○ The House
- 435 members
- Divided between states depending on their population size
- 2 year term
- 6 non-voting delegates from WA DC and US territories
- Represent districts of about 730,000 people
- The majority party wields centralized control
- The head of the House decides which issues are sent to the floor
- All budgeting measures must originate from the house
- They can move to impeach public officials, including president.
○ The Senate
- 100 members
- 2 from each state
- 6 year term (staggered)
- They have power to Senators posses degree of autonomy, legislative hold: An informal way for the US senator to object a bill going to the senate floor, Halts senate movement on issue for weeks or more.
- Filibuster
- Holds trial to impeach public officials
- Holds “consent and advice” power
- Approves treaties
- Reviews presidential appointments
Filibuster
Unique to the US senate that allows Senator to hold the floor indefinitely, preventing the vote on the bill. The only way it can endured is with “cloture” vote”: 60 votes needed. Was not huge in our history, increased since 1950s. Was used to deter civil rights legislation.
Representation in Congress
- Overall becoming more diverse
- Members of Congress have primary responsibility to their constituents ( district making up area they were elected in)
- Good Representation Activities:
- individual constituents
- Provide jobs, sponsor bills
- Organized interest
- introduce legislation, obtain federal grants and contracts
- District as a whole
- Obtain federal projects, Support policies that enhance economic prosperity, safety, etc.
Congress at Work: Leadership
- House
○ Speaker of the House
§ `Chief administrative officer in the House of Representatives
○ Majority leader
§ Party’s floor manager, negotiator, and spokesperson
§ Aided by whips: responsible for party discipline
○ Minority leader - Senate
○ Vice President
§ Only shows up for important votes and ceremonial procedures
○ President pro tempore
§ Longest-serving senator of majority party
○ Majority leader
○ Minority leader
Congress at Work: Committees
- Regular duties of Congress play out in committees
○ Draft legislation
○ Sponsor hearings
○ Oversee executive branch
○ Draft the federal budget - Types of Committees
○ Standing committees: permanent bodies with fixed jurisdictions
○ Select (special_ committees: created for a defined time to investigate particular issue
○ Joint committees: made up of House and Senate members to address topics of continued importance. - Committees here:
○ Gatekeeping authority: the right to decide if a change in policy will be considered
○ Proprosal power: the capacity to bring a proprosal before the chamber - Allow members to become experts in a specific field of legislation
- Make Congress more efficient - but also less transparent
○ Committees are where bills go to die (approx. 6 % of bills ever make it to the floor; 2-3% of bills are passed) - Committees are hiercachiral with prioruty often fiven to seniority based on members’ times of service
Speaker of House and Senate majority leader get to make final call on committee assignments and designate chairs
Congress at Work: Staffers
- Each member of Congress has a large staff that provides assistance on everything from writing legislation to correspondence with constituents
- Committees have staff
Three staff agencies (CRS, GAO, and CBO) that provide nonpartisan policy advice to members
How a Bill Becomes a Law
○ Drafting a Bill
- Only members of the House and Senate have the right to introduce a bill
○ But anyone can petition members to introduce one
- Needs at least one primary sponsor
○ Can have any number of co-sponsors (the more, the higher the chance of passing)
Congressional Research Service helps draft bills
○ Submitting a Bill - Senate ○ Page places bill with bill clerk ○ Clerk writes number on first page ○ Notes senator's suggestion for comittes referral ○ Places in tray ○ Printed overnight - House ○ Representative carries bill to rostrum ○ Hands legislation to clerk or drops in box (hopper) ○ Delivered to speaker's office ○ Assigned a number Referred to committee
○ Committee Action
○ A way for committees to gather information and gauge members’ support for legislation. Hearings usually feature witnesses who submit testimony, making an oral presentation, and answer questions from committee members
- Prepare legislation for floor consideration
○ Markup sessions: a gathering of the full committee to draft the final version of a bill before the committee votes on it
○ Vote to report rewritten bill to full House or Senate for consideration
- Kill legislation
○ Voting against reporting to full chamber or not considering bill at all
- Exercise oversight
Monitor the programs that have passed and actions of executive branch
○ Floor Action
- Getting to the Floor
○ Senate
§ Placed on business calendar, called up for consideration
§ Unanimous consent needed to be brought to floor
○ House
§ Majority part leaders (may) rewrite legislation
§ House Rules Committee issues directive governing the process for the bill
○ Bill can get stuck on calendar in both chambers
- On the floor
○ Bill is assigned a floor manager: handles amendment and controls time for debate
○ House manager can extend time for debate, allow multiple votes
○ Senator may halt all activity by refusing to yield the floor (filibuster)
○ The Vote
- Voice vote:
○ Congressional vote in which the presiding officer asks those for and against to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ and announces the result. No record is kept
- Roll-call vote:
○ Congressional vote in which each member’s vote is recorded, either by roll call (Senate) or electronically (House)
Roll-call votes on major bills most important public act a member of Congress preforms
○ Conference Committee
- Legislation must pass House and Senate in identical form to go to the president
○ Chambers send the bill back and forth until one chamber addes a version passed by the other
- Sometime, conference committee reconciles difference
○ Can write new bill but sections that were the same cannot be altered
Up or down floor vote with no amendments permitted on the bill
○ Presidential Action
- No bill becomes las until the president takes action, usually by signing
- Veto: constitutional procedure by which a president can prevent enactment of legislation passed by Congress
○ Congress can override veto with 2/3 vote in chamber
Presidents generally use the threat of a veto to shape legislation and try to avoid the embarrassment of having a veto overridden
Why is Congress so Unpopular?
- Least popular branch, yet 90% of incumbents get reelected. Hows that possible?
○ Constituents tend to like their own representatives and senators, but dislike the partisan fighting and gridlock
○ Divided Government
§ Each party holds at east one of three nationally0elected institutions
§ One or both chambers of Congress led by party opposed to the president will result in legislative standoff
§ Slows policymaking process
○ Partisan Polarization
○ Affective Polarization
Affective Polarization
- Polarization previously primarily seen only in issue-based terms
○ Policy preferences drift further apart- New type of division has emerged in the mass public in recent years:
○ Ordinary Americans increasingly dislike and distrust those from the other party. Democrats and Republicans both say that the other party’s members are hypocritical, selfish, and close minded, and they are unwilling to socialize across party lines. - Impacts not only the political field…
○ Political mobilization and participation
○ Declining trust in government
○ Covid policy compliance - …but also the non-political sphere and our daily lives
○ Friends
○ Marriage
○ Shopping
○ Workplace
○ Social Events
- New type of division has emerged in the mass public in recent years:
Federal Courts
■ Handle three types of cases
– Crimes that (potentially) violate federal laws, treaties, or the
Constitution
– Disputes that spill over state lines
– Appeals to state court rulings (if federal issue is involved)
■ District Courts
– First level of federal court
– 94 courts, 677 judges (1 judge hears each case)
■ Circuit Courts
– Second stage of federal courts
– 13 appellate courts, 180 judges (3 judges hear each case)
The Courts Role in American Politics
■ Judicial Review – Court’s power to determine the constitutionality of laws passed by state legislatures and Congress, as well as the actions of federal and state public officials – Implied power – it is not mentioned in the Constitution – Established in Marbury v. Madison
■ Judicial Activism – A vigorous or active approach to reviewing other branches of government ■ Judicial Restraint – Reluctance to interfere with elected branches, only doing so as a last resort
Organization of the Judicial Branch
■ Article III of the Constitution
– Establishes a Supreme Court
– Courts have the power to resolve “cases and controversies”
– Congress gets to design rest of federal court system
■ Judiciary Act of 1789, Judiciary Act of 1925
■ Power divided between different courts
– Judicial federalism: federal & state court systems
– Three layers: trial courts, appellate courts, high court
■ Different character from Congress and presidency
– Judges and justices are (in some ways) insulated from political considerations
■ Lifetime terms (“during good behavior”)
■ Non-elected
Mabury V Madison (1803)
