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Article I, Section 8 (on Congress)
- Enumerated powers
- Implied powers
"The legislative authority necessarily predominates" (Madison, #51)
- The modern power of the presidency wasn't intentional
- Article II gives very little express power. Mostly legislated
- The power struggles of the time influenced the founders
- Senators represented each state legislature
- House meant to represent the people
- Class structure: senate = elite
- Only in 1913 did the 17th amendment elected the Senate by pop.
- Professional ruling class like Plato's society
- "Big picture," "protectors of society"
- The House also had class stratification.
Term length and constituencies
- House
- 435 members
- Equally populated districts
- 2 year term
- Senate
- 100 members (2 per state)
- 6 year staggered terms
Governing rules (like parliamentary procedure)
- House has more and more strict rules (size, time limits)
- In the Senate, everyone can address an issue
Prestige!
- Senate is a less formal "coming-together," so it has prestige.
- Represent the entirety of the state, so a huge amount of
canvassing
- Responsibility entrusted for 6 years
- House is less prestigious (strict rules, short terms, small areas)
- Districts can be very small
- Don't conduct impeachment trials
- Less responsibility
Functions/Responsibilities of Congress
1) Lawmaking - the primary/intended purpose
- Founders wanted broad (collective good) national policy
- Vast majority of proposals (bills) don't become laws
- Meant to be able to die in many ways
- Congresspeople don't (mostly) write their own bills
- Executive branch writes bills
- Parties write proposals and help push them through
- Interest groups
- Like the executive branch, experts = interests
2) Constituent Services
- Help out the people from your district
- Casework (e.g. handling phone call complaints)
- Acts as an access point to the political network
3) Representatives' two roles
- (Burkian) Trustee: prevent constituents from enacting dumb laws
- Act as part of the larger body
- Senators play this role more often
- Instructed Delegate
- Do what your constituents want, based on polls, casework
- House Representatives with a more sensitive seat
- Instance: tobacco
- Senators and Representatives hurt Big Tobacco as trustees
- But Virginia's tobacco industry was harmed, so labor voted
against Representatives who acted as Trustees
4) Oversight
- How is the executive handling congressional legislature?
- Confirmation/appointment powers (this is a check/balance)
- Public hearings
- Despite the quantity of these, things fall through the cracks
- Ex: FEMA officer during Katrina lied on his resume.
- There is a lot of legislation and officials.
- These leaders are super important because quality trickles dwn
5) Public education
- Agenda setting: what Congress cares about/addresses/investigates
- Town halls are often representative -> constituent info
- Email campaign
- CSPAN
- American public not actually very receptive to education
6) "Conflict Resolution and Accommodation"
- Discussion, debate, hearings, compromise
Congressional Elections and Voting
- Factors influencing outcomes
- Advertising is huge
- Electoral design (future class)
- Presidential elections
- "Coattails" = popular president makes party more popular
- Evidenced by swinging elections towards pres. party
- "Short" or "long" coattails
- Money!
- Spend on increasing turnouts
- Spend on constituents
- VERY helpful but not sufficient
- Big incumbent advantage (3 reasons - Mayhew)
- Built-in offices and staff on the Hill
- Network connections for a campaign
- Committees and credit for working towards constituents
- Universal credit = corona/cancer research, ex
- Personal credit = stamp of approval on funds for district
- Parties support reelections (money, ads) for tenure
- Since 1968, >75% of incumbent senators are reelected and 90%
of incumbent Representatives are reelected.
- Congressional Reapportionment
- Redistricting for House, like Census-based.
- Movement from North, NE southward and westward
- Governors help control reapportionment, help control election
Permanent Reapportionment Act of 1929
- Didn't want to favor "urbanized" areas
- Republicans in 1920 against "overrepresentation" of areas like
Detroit
- Limits House to 435 (zero sum representation)
- Encourages gerrymandering, district design
- Restrict debate a bit, changed power-grab dynamics
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