Exam 2 Notes Congress Examining the Electoral Connection Congress is the primary branch of government Americans absolutely hate Congress but for the strangest reason they ab solutely love their member of Congress Ralph Nader The percent of individuals who approve of their member of congress is a strong majority and the approval of congress overall is very low We have government spending when it goes to someone else s district CONGRESS IN THE CONSTITUTION ARCTICLE I Bicameralism two chambers in legislature Size of bodies House of Rep local and Senate entire state 435 House members 1 member for every 30 000 individuals Terms of office house did too oAs the size of a population grew the number of members in the oBut the max number a state can have is 435 The senate has two from each state 100 members House two years oMembers of the house should be routinely up for reelection This forces you to listen to the people in order to make them happy in order to get reelected Senate six years oEvery two years a third of the senate comes up for reelection oThree classes A B C But senate has elections every two oThis is so the senate cannot change too rapidly they wanted years the senate to be less responsive to public opinion Qualifications House 25 yrs old Citizen for 7 years oYou don t have to live in a district to represent but you have to live in the state somewhat common Senate 30 yrs old Citizen for 9 years oHave to live in state doesn t matter where Term Limits in Articles of Confederation The founders found it was easier for the representatives to be there for a while so they can develop expertise If the people wanted to get rid of them they would so there are no need for term limits Most calls for term limits calls for a limit of 6 terms 12 years for the house and a limit of 2 terms 12 years for Congress But the aver age member of congress only serves 12 years or less excluding those long term incumbents CONGRESSION DISTRICTS Apportionment the process of allocating seats to a legislative body lines done by state legislature have we are slowly growing Reapportionment is when they do it again and re draw the district The reason we have census is too see how many house seats we 1 per 30 000 the first 1911 house has 135 seats and every census In 1950 NY had 43 seats but their proportional size has decreased In 2010 CA was granted 53 seats or 12 of all seats Gerrymandering drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party as a disproportionately large share of seats for the share of votes its candidates wins When the parties draw lines to favor their party gerrymandering for partisan reasons is okay The name came from a signer of the constitution Governor of the There is nothing in the constitution about gerrymandering it says that oThis violate the equal protection clause in the 14th amendment state of MASS He helped re draw the district lines and drew them in favor of his party Wesberry V Sanders 1964 the court applies one person one vote to the congressional districts Lots of people in urban district and few people in the rural district You cannot create district so that one district has many fewer people When state legislatures draw districts they must be roughly equal in Today the average district is about 650 000 people each then the others population The Electoral System Parliamentary v Presidential Systems Proportional Rule v Plurality Rule Party Centered v Candidate Centered The U S has a candidate centered system Almost 80 in the U S congress are not party votes when the majority of one party votes against the majority of another party The U S has weak political parties Without the ability of party leaders to demand compliance from others col lection action fails Citizens can donate only up to 2 300 per election one for the primary and one for the general to a candidate running for the senate Split ticket voting the act of voting for candidates from different political parties for different offices Happens for a majority of voters they don t vote straight party lines Voters don t base their decisions on parties so why should candi dates Political Action Committee PAC A Federally registered fund rais ing group that pools money from individuals to give to political can didates and parties David Mayhew s Congress The Electoral Connection An example of Rational Choice Theory The argument that when individuals when behaving rationally set goals and pursue them They are single minded thinkers and are not interested in helping you but are instead thinking of themselves Potential Aims of MC s that Guide Rational Behavior Getting Re elected Influence within the congress Make good public policy Getting rich in office Expected incumbent differential any difference perceived by a relevant po litical actor between what an incumbent member of congress is likely to do if returned to office and what any possible challenger might do Members of congress what to let you know as a relevant political ac tor want to flaunt their experience Advertising of MC s Advertising Building a Brand Name Visit to Constituency oCongress visits their people often they only work Tuesday oThey are in constant campaign mode Thursday Letters of Congratulations Franking Privileges oPeople who have recently been married graduated etc oA member of congress can mail things to you as long as it is oThey typically send a flyer with their names legislative items official for free etc Speeches Position Taking not without risk oPreferred over second oMinute speeches which occur after hours and are mainly cap tured on film But their records will be recorded as an official speech given in front of Congress Roll Call votes oMember generally dislike roll call votes oCan be easily misinterpreted oPosition take votes can be risky cannot be viewed in isolation Credit Claiming Casework oWhen someone calls possibly complaint they enter it into the computer and they then call whom they need to get that complaint handled Particularized Benefits Pork Barrel Projects some sort of project oA project in which money is coming to our district to pay for oEveryone ALL tax payer s pay for this oThe government benefits go to a particular area but the costs of that benefit comes from all districts oCasework the activity undertaken by members of congress and their staffs to solve constituents problems with govern ment agencies oPork Barrel Legislation Legislation that provides members of Congress with federal projects and
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