Congress As an institution organized and how it functions Individual Members motivations how decisions are made President expected to be in control to insure the safety of public during a crisis will represent all of the people Ex Roosevelt had fireside chats saying we re going to be alright we have nothing to fear but fear itself Congress expect that they act in national interest but also act in our local interest represent interest of their people their state or district so they need to know what we want efficient and effective Ex can look at public opinion polls want to know what we want Congress will have two residences Washington where they work and home where they live also important to campaign and to find out what their people want House and Senate Tuesday Thursday Club go home on long weekends Definition of Democracy people choose their representatives and have some influence by informing members of Congress of what we want then the representatives will fight for our local and national interest Goals of Congress 1 Write good public policy Laws programs Make things better back home Mayhew I don t disagree with Fenno It s not that his goals are wrong I want to make this simple I ll make a semi realistic assumption If we assume that members of Congress only have one goal reelection we will understand what these members do and how why they make their decisions They have other motivations but we can vote on reelection If Mayhew is right then this is a bad system Others argue that this is exactly what we want We want them to be nervous around reelection time because then they will try to please us by voting for what we want Gurian thinks it is a mix of both In modern Congress not all members fear defeat at reelection time In fact most don t House of Reps most districts are safe for one party or the other varies from election to election but 10 20 of seats are competitive Other 80 90 are safe Most Congressional districts are drawn so that they will be safe for one party or the other Constitution says nothing about how district lines will be drawn but population has to be about equal can t be drawn districts so that they favor one race or another Presidential elections based on 4 factors Another factor for Congressional elections incumbency Tend to vote for the incumbent Reasons why 1 2 3 4 People will not vote for someone they ve never heard of Easier for incumbents to raise money relative to new person running Interest groups are more willing to give money to incumbents Constituent services case work to help individuals with any kind of problem they have with the federal government state government by state legislators 5 Franking privilege members don t have to pay for postage if they re writing to their constituents 6 Crediting If it hadn t been for me it wouldn t have gone through I sponsored that legislation 7 They can work the news media