Political Institutions CONGRESS Congress and the public o Public approval of Congress as an institution 10 approval rating in the whole country Public approval of Congress has gone down and reached an all time low Congress in the social institution with less confidence lowest Only 7 of population thinks Congress has ethical value Presidency executive and Congress legislative fight for it But Congress is underworked and overpaid by public 2011 highest negative feedback in Gallup polling 2 3 of population disapproves Judicial branch is the highest in public confidence Congress is not overpaid Not underpaid but fair Congress was much better paid 50 years ago Congress also have a bad opinion of US citizens o Public approval of Congress as individuals House is re elected Has 90 re election rate o Explaining an anomaly Hating Congress but loving its members 1 Home Style how members behave when they re back at their districts Advertise themselves to us Run for Congress by running against Congress How horrible it is in Washington and how lucky that district is for having them as a Senator The members themselves put it down Earmarks money for certain projects They brag with it 2 Constituency casework personal favors for citizens by the congressional staff from that Senator One of the reasons why there are congressional staffs in each district Problem Call my office Cutting through the red tape Institutional reforms more amount of power slots 3 More access to campaign funds More than 90 of contributions go to incumbents so it makes it harder to defeat them Money is driving the system Tremendent incumbency advantage People approve of their representatives members but view the institution so horribly Result is congressional membership increasingly independent of party control o Evaluating how Congress works 3 criteria for measuring Congress behavior 1 Responsiveness Is Congress sensitive to the varying needs of the many different interests in a very diverse society Women are increasing but only make 20 of Congress 20 senators 81 representatives Average age is 61 in senate and 56 in House are they responsive to our needs 2 Accountability Are the public realistically able to change the makeup of Congress if they so desire Decline in turnover over a decade new members more incumbents More members now efficiently answering only to Primary voters recall empowering the extremists 3 Responsibility Is Congress providing solutions to the nation s problem Decline in number of bills introduced and enacted Decline in number of laws Only 3 of bills are being enacted Filibusters talking for hours against a bill 1 out of every 6 votes is to stop filibusters o Reforming Congress to meet the criteria To increase responsiveness democratizing Congress Instead of 2 dozen people in power now they all exercise power Split power More responsiveness to different interests Power decentralized by a Weakening committee system b Elevating roles of individual members To increase accountability putting Congress on display Sunshine laws meetings are more almost all have public attendance Less secretive meetings Have press everything s open Recorded floor votes no tellers Members punch their card we know who is voting and for whom or what It lets us know what they re really doing To increase responsibility 1 Reasserting Congressional power related to White House Budget Act 1974 Equal footing with President in making the nation s budget War power Act 1976 in wake of Vietnam we couldn t stop the president from committing troops but we can not vote for them to stay so they are sent back Unsuccessful Give itself more support staff so they can increase oversight capabilities make sure that money is being spent correctly Increase of staff members 2 Restoring Congressional efficiency parties leadership has strengthened as functional organizations re weak compared to other organizations but they re more unified than ever Stronger in unity weaker in function o Congressional reform in broader context Internal Congressional environment opposing pressures Leadership and parties are centralized Individual members are decentralized DC policy environment multiple pressure points 1 Big increase in number and influence in interests groups Increase in interests groups Mostly corporate and non connected more pressure Lobbying has increased in amount of money spent 3 billion dollars spent doubled Approximately 25 lobbyists each Congress 2 Reinvigorated media WATCHDOGS Entertainment sometimes goes too far tabloids Congressmen are always pointed out 3 Strengthened presidency active supreme court National electoral environment increasingly partisan voters districts More extremists harder to get things done less moderate Because it s divided into districts more extreme members to Congress o Current status of Congress Both more popular and less popular More partisan in DC Congress Online Party polarization of Congress 1947 2010 parties are more far from each other are more extremists Republicans in the House are widely more conservative Democrats are more liberal but not widely Parties have become more polarized in part because of district division Voters are more polarized since the 1970 reform era Institution is more polarized and that is reflected in the voting In 20 years there s has decreased the swing districts Less responsible Less done less responsible less productive fewer bills The worst of both worlds Raymond Smith Parliamentary discipline without the parliamentary efficiency We don t get the advantages of a Parliament we don t get the work done even f we have a Parliamentary discipline Week 10 The Congress Chapter 7 The Congress KKD o Congress is both the most accessible branch of the federal government and the one that often scores the highest in public distrust This paradox is explained by how influence is wielded and why many Americans believe these patterns are not fair o Congress can declare war build support and control the Army and the Navy collect taxes borrow money and pay debt control immigration regulate commerce and set the rules for overseas trade create courts inferior to the Supreme Court establish networks of post offices and roads and more generally to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the US government or any department or officer thereof Article I section 8 of the Constitution o Congress is the