POS1041 Exam 2 Study Guide Chapter 6 Congress Two worlds of Congress lawmaking and representing Law making world of congress is located in Capital Hill in D C Representing world of congress districts is where members relate to constituents the representing congress winning elections is the baseline of the relationship Congressional Paradox the fact that congress has extremely high rates even though we the people don t like congress that is the paradox Power of Congressional incumbency and advantages of incumbency 1 Name recognition and relevant experience back in the day people didn t really know the names of their congressmen at the voting booth name recognition became a major key Not to mention the experience already being in office Knowing in s and out s 2 Money those in power running for re election have built in donors people with money are attracted by those in power and on average is easier to raise money 3 Campaign organization since they ran before they know how to run a campaign those that work the campaign are also apart of the congressional staff successful campaign 4 Time is also on their side incumbents know ahead of time that they will be running for re election unlike their challengers who are running a compressed campaign Making incumbents more prepared when compared to challengers who are rookies Congressional Campaign spending The growth of candidate centered electoral politics worked to the advantage of the incumbents willing to build a personal following members of congress voted themselves greater resources for servicing their states and districts higher allowances for staff travel local offices and communication 1 4 million per legislator in the House and up to 3 times as much per senator depending on the population of the state Strategic Politicians hypothesis Kernall Jacobson Experienced politicians make strategic rational decisions about when to run for office Ex in a district where an incumbent has raised money and support it would be dumb to be a challenger Open seat is when incumbent decides not to run for office leads to challengers feeling confident to run for that office gets lots of attention when it occurs Potential campaign contributors also make strategic decisions about when and whom to contribute to Ex contributors don t want to throw away their money confidence they will win or has good chance Majority of incumbent races in America are ether an incumbent with money taking no challenger or incumbent money facing a weak challenger Incumbent appearing invincible affects both potential challengers and contributors This may be considered a self fulfilling prophecy Mayhew s Continuous Campaign advertising franking p Credit claiming pork barrel earmarks position taking The electoral connection David Mayhew discusses the continuous campaign of incumbents name recognition good service record and good ties A belief that these politicians are single minded seekers of re election 3 basic kinds of activities in which members of congress engage in continuous campaign 1 Advertising member s efforts to get their names and themselves in front of constituents in a positive light Trips home franking p Franking p allows congress to transmit mail to advertise their success paid by tax payer Trips home occur every week allows congressmen to stay connected with supporters keeps up their following 3 4 day weekends for this reason 2 Credit Claiming members claim personal responsibility for moving government to do things for their districts and constituents Ex I did this I did that Federal grants and money that flows into a district congressmen will claim credit Ex Pork barrel Government funds for projects designed to please voters of legislators to gain votes earmarks are concentrated benefits with dispersed cost like jobs or money coming to a certain district that the national tax payer pays for Casework help constituents Via staff deal with gov t bureaucracy make friends and no enemies non partisan Morris F argument 3 Position taking taking the right position and casting the right vote on matters that are important to the district constituents becomes difficult when dealing with foreign policy At a minimum these votes position taking must be explainable Challengers may use the vote or position taking against them when running for re election Mayhew would argue that if you have to fight real hard for re election then you haven t run a continuous campaign Haven t done job properly Representation and in responsibility in congress Familiar criticism of congress is against member s pursuit of particularized benefits such as programs projects earn mark s and tax breaks targeted at constituents PORK this also known as particularized benefits Members are always tempted to over produce especially if primary concern is reelection MAYHEW Individual responsibility leads to collective irresponsibility The pursuit of reelection therefore makes logrolling a legislative practice in which members of congress offer reciprocal support to each others vote gaining projects or tax breaks attractive strategy that leads to prisoner s dilemma because if everyone were to follow such individual production strategy all may end up in worse shape politically when shackled with collective blame for the overall consequences This becomes a collective action problem each member pursues a rational Ind Productive strategy that leads to collective irresponsibility Anti Party Wave Elections When the people are frustrated with the current president low approval ratings and their party which causes the incumbents to lose reelection Mid term elections allowing the winning party to gain more seats in both Houses gaining control Party in power becomes punished Usually many more incumbents loose than is typical in an election year When this happens most incumbent losers typically are from political party in power But even these elections vast majority of incumbents are reelected Ex 1994 elections Rep won power also in 2010 with Obamas low approval ratings Nature of Representation instructed delegate trustee and sociological Instructed Delegate member votes the way he thinks his her constituents thinks or are in favor for The representative is the one that was chosen to decide what is best This is referred to as Burkian style representation Trustee Edmund Burke member listens to constituents but votes his her own conscience He served one term in Parliament The people weren t happy Sociological do members
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