Congress Representation in Theory Comparative Perspective How Representative is Congress I II III I Representative government representative democracy We play an indirect role we elect representative and they govern Founders set up republic as a way to not abuse power Madison was concerned about the amount of power that the masses would have wanted to limit our ability to affect the government Interests of the citizens is reflected in the representatives Representatives have to be somewhat interested in us we elect them Key institution with representation is Congress President is not directly elected House and Senate is directly elected Representation is most relevant for the legislative branch dominant branch FED 51 legislative authority dominates Congress and our system is unique by a comparative sense 1 Very few democracies that have the possibility in dividing government when Congress is 1 party and president is the other you can shut the government down Parliamentary systems don t have the possibility to divide government because the norm is that the party parties that control legislature parliament they choose the prime minister who runs the government They are chosen because they have the power in the parliament No real possibility If the prime minister and his cabinet comes up with a plan odds are the parliament will pass it because they have the majority 2 How many elections we have More frequent elections than other countries At the national level every 2 years we ask voters to vote for members of the House of Representatives 1 2 senators could be up for election And you could vote for the President At the state level governor could be up for election state senator state congressman mayor city council school board or voting on amendments to state constitution Local elections primary elections We ask SO much of our voters Maximum number of years that the parliament can go without an election tends to be 4 or 5 years Parliament can call early election we cannot 3 Unusual for a parliament to be given as much power to govern as we give our congress Our congress has so much power Early parliaments were rubber stampers and just listen to the king Parliament didn t serve a representative purpose They were representing monarch and not the people Parliaments today are not big on policy making They play more of a discretionary role They look at what the prime minister and cabinet send them Our congress is a full player when it comes to policy making Congress creates its own bills they don t have to listen to the president They have so much governing power and policy making power 4 When our Founders created congress they put the bicameral legislature in That s not unique because other countries have a bicameral legislature The fact that we give so much power to both of our houses is unique Powerful institutions House and Senate We also directly elect our Senate This is not the norm Most upper houses are not popularly elected but Senate is Canadian Senate is appointed and not elected German system s upper house chosen by state governments Not directly elected House of Lords in the UK traditionally if you wanted in the house you would inherit it Some seats today are inherited and some are appointed BUT none of them are elected In the UK if the House of Commons wanted to it has the power to pass a law getting rid of the House of Lords Madison s idea of balancing power Madison argued that while they both should be powerful they both should serve different functions Representation they both serve different functions If we think about House of Representatives what was Madison going for The House should be closest to the people We directly elect every 2 years He let us have our say In his mind that meant the House would be passionate His picture of the House was a mess While he didn t foresee this you also see partisanship The house would be more partisan The word that comes to mind when Madison talks about the Senate is majestic Senators would be worried about big issues Senate in Madison s thinking would be more stable You have a 6 year terms so you will become an expert on policies In Fed 62 Madison calls this relationship between the House and Senate Senatorial Trust requiring greater extent of information and stability of character The Senate should check the passionate passions in the House The House has always been more passionate about issues and more partisan The Senate partisan matters but matter less Does Congress mirror us Does Congress look and represent the American people Little yes but more no Yes Religion No Congress tends to be older than the American people You see that economic differences matter On age Senate pitches older 63 is the average than the House Gender women are still under represented Race minority groups under represented More in the house than the senate side Congressional representatives male white higher educated higher income than average Americans Senate over 1 3 are millionaires Congress isn t very good at representing us because they don t look like average Americans Expectations What do we think representatives should do What is their job When we think of the trustee model of representation it s about representing a representative that you think represents your interests but you believe you elect him and he goes to congress and he knows the best choice You aren t telling him what to do you re trusting him on making the right decisions The Trustee Model isn t about asking what to do it s about having his people trust him and making an informed decision With the Delegate Model the expectation is that you elect him and he should do what you want because he is your delegate Not your trustee An Agency Model resembles the Trustee Model Example when you need a lawyer you pick an expert and then that person will do the right thing You are choosing someone and then giving that person space to make the choices because that person is more informed Representatives in congress have incentives to represent their constitutants 25 of congress time is spent on constatuentsy service 67 of time for staff It s not how they vote on bill it has to do with the little things they do to help you Example social security If you get social security you re probably worried about you check if it doesn t come in You call your congressman not your senator We tend not to like Congress We think OUR congressman are doing a good job though The institution is too complex so
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