Origins / powers of Congress
A. U.S. Congress- unusual - has two separate / powerful chambers.
1. Bicameral Congress - origins in negotiations that shaped Constitution
2. Representation in the House - based on population. Representatives elected for Two-Year terms. Census every ten years - there is a REAPPORTIONMENT of House seats.
3. Each state has two senators. Senators serve six-year terms.
B. The Constitution gives House / Senate similar legislative tasks.
1. One difference - House has power of IMPEACHMENT. Senate acts as a court to try impeachment.
2. Senate - sole power to affirm treaties.
3. Senate - must approve major presidential appointments.
II. Electing Congress
A. INCUMBENTS have a very high rate of return.
1. Over 90 percent of House incumbents win reelection.
2. Yet, public does not respect Congress very much.
B. Widespread dissatisfaction w/Congress - fifteen states passed TERM LIMITS.
1. Term limits - stranglehold of most incumbents / open electoral process to newcomers.
2. However - some believe terms of federal officials can be limited only by amending U.S. Constitution.
3. U.S. Supreme Court will probably rule term limits on federal legislators unconstitutional.
C. Incumbents remain protected by district lines that are GERRYMANDERED to protect incumbents / dominant party.
D. Incumbents - have extra advantages
1. NAME RECOGNITION among constituents.
2. FRANKING PRIVILEGE - free postage to send mail to constituents.
3. Incumbents have staffs that provide assistance to constituents (CASEWORK).
4. Incumbents receive much more financial support. Challengers have difficult time raising campaign financing to run a viable campaign. PACs heavily favor incumbents.
E. Congress not representative of American population in terms of demographics / More educated than typical American. Relatively few minorities / women.
1. Why lack of female / minority representation.
a. DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATION - legislative bodies should resemble demographics of the constituents.
b. Voters should remain colorblind / gender-blind - elect best representatives regardless of ethnicity / gender.
2. RACIAL GERRYMANDERING - Drawing of district lines to promote election of ethnic minority candidates.
III. How issues get on congressional agenda.
A. Some issues moved to agenda because of trend (increased awareness about violence on television) or event (coal mine disaster) draws attention to problem.
B. Presidential support can move an issue onto the agenda quickly.
C. Congressional Party leaders / committee chairs influence agenda most.
IV. Legislation
A. After introduction / bills go to committee / then usually to a subcommittee. After committee passes a bill it goes to full membership for a vote.
B. If House / Senate versions different - must go to a conference committee. If both House / Senate pass conference committee's compromised version - bill then goes to president for his signature.
C. President can VETO a bill / Congress can override that veto by two-thirds majority in each house. / POCKET VETO takes place when Congress adjourns within / before ten days of time it sent bill to White House / president does not sign it.
V. Committees: where the action is
A. Congress - decentralized into committees - specialized groups to develop / use expertise in specific areas.
B. Types of committees. - STANDING COMMITTEES - permanent committees that specialize in an area of public policy
1. JOINT COMMITTEES - members from both House / Senate.
2. SELECT COMMITTEES - temporary / created for a specific purpose (investigate Watergate scandal).
3. CONFERENCE COMMITTEES - work out differences between House / Senate versions of legislation.
C. Influence on committees grows w/SENIORITY / increased expertise.
D. Since 1970s - committee chair positions are usually but not always based on seniority.
E. Committees / subcommittees - where legislation takes place.
1. Hearings - opportunity to attract attention to a particular problem
2. Committee / subcommittee members meet to decide provisions of bill at the markup sessions.
3. Committee / subcommittee chairman strongly influences way a committee handles its work. Some are better than others at leading / bargaining / negotiating
F. Pluralism / majoritarianism at work in Congress.
1. Committee system enhances pluralism - members try to get on committees / work with issues of special importance to their constituents.
2. Committees - reflect bipartisan nature of Congress / thus reflect majoritarianism.
VI. Leaders / followers in Congress.
A. Each major party in the two houses has a leadership hierarchy.
1. House - leader selected by majority party is SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. / counterpart in opposing party is MINORITY LEADER.
2. Senate - president pro tempore presides when vice president is absent. / Real leader of majority party is MAJORITY LEADER / His opposite is MINORITY LEADER.
3. Party leaders are coalition builders, not autocrats.
B. Both formal rules and informal norms structure the operation of the House and the Senate
1. The House relies on its Rules Committee to govern floor debate. The Senate uses unanimous consent agreements.
2. Senators can FILIBUSTER to try to stop legislation they don't like. Filibusters can be stopped by a CLOTURE vote.
C. Unwritten norms of behavior help to keep both houses operating smoothly.
1. One celebrated norm is that members are to show respect for one another in their public deliberations.
2. Members of Congress are expected to be willing bargainers.
3. Gradual evolution - greater assertiveness by individual members
VII. The legislative decision-making
A. Legislative process - make up their minds / decide how to vote -
1. POLITICAL PARTIES: Party unity not strong / party affiliation - still predictor of voting behavior.
2. THE PRESIDENT: White House heavily involved in legislation / President has legislation introduced for him / he and his assistants lobby members of Congress on bills moving through legislative process.
3. CONSTITUENTS: important to any legislator's consideration of a bill / how will constituents feel about the issue.
4. INTEREST GROUPS: Interest group influence enhanced by many active members who live in member's district or state.
VIII. Oversight: following through on legislation
A. OVERSIGHT - the process of reviewing agency operations / determine if agency is carrying out policies as Congress intended.
B. Executive branch has grown / policies more complex / oversight more difficult.
C. Congress has responded by adding resources, including the Congressional Budget Office / Office of Technology Assessment.
D. Congress long criticized for not doing enough oversight / today - sometimes accused of going too far.
1. Many critics - Congress - MICRO-MANAGEMENT - through intervention in administrative POLICYMAKING
2. Increasing involvement in foreign policy / long the preserve of president.
IX. Dilemma of representation
A. Members of Congress live in two worlds. / In Washington - dealing with great issues of national concern / also spend much of the week traveling back to their district / state - meet with constituents / give speeches to local groups.
B. Legislators should vote according to conscience or constituency preference - never resolved.
1. Legislator who votes according to conscience sees role as that of a TRUSTEE.
2. Legislator who feels duty bound to represent majority view of constituents sees role as that of a delegate.
3. Member of Congress - inconsistent not always delegate or trustee / More crucial issue is at home - more
they are pulled toward DELEGATE role.
X. Pluralism, majoritarianism, and democracy
A. If legislators act as delegates - POLICYMAKERS are Pluralistic / If legislators act as trustees - no guarantee that POLICYMAKING will be MAJORITARIAN, but they will be less tied to narrow interests of their districts / states.
B. PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEMS - a point of reference They fit MAJORITARIAN model of democracy to a much greater extent.
C. Congress's inability to reduce budget deficit reflects pluralistic nature of congressional POLICYMAKING.
1. Legislators - more concerned about saving programs of interest to their constituency than they are in cuttings pending - all agree that deficit is too big.
2. Pluralism - Easy to criticize - important to remember that our congressional system allows individual constituencies to be heard / Programs protected through bargaining are important to different segments of American population.
3. An alternative to our pluralistic Congress - operate on strict MAJORITARIAN principles. / Would need strong political parties.
INCUMBENCY / CRITICISM
Americans critical of Congress as an institution / Change could come through internal reform of its procedures. / Change could come by electing different set of people to House / Senate. -Americans like their members of Congress better than Congress as a whole. They reelect their legislators at a very high rate.
I. Electoral system
A. In earlier years senators elected by state legislatures / 1913 - Seventeenth Amendment declared that all senators to be chosen by direct election.
B. House members have always been selected by direct election. / 1960s - APPORTIONMENT changed / Until then, states could apportion districts any way they wanted to / Constitution only says there shall be a census every ten years and subsequent to that census there shall be an "enumeration" of the number of representatives from each state.
1. State legislatures - have authority to draw House district boundaries after the census, determine how many representatives each state will have for the next ten years. / State legislatures were not compelled to draw districts of equal population size. / 1960s - many extreme differences districts sizes /. Some with 200,000 people / others had over three-quarters of million.
2. As migration to cities increased, rural-dominated state legislatures not interested in reducing congressional representation from home areas / increasing representation in urban areas.
3. 1962 - Supreme Court ruled in BAKER v. CAR - that they would consider cases where there was a question "equal protection" for citizens.
a. REYNOLDS v. SIMMS - Court ruled that both houses and all state legislatures must be apportioned on basis of equal population.
b. WESBERRY v. SANDERS - ruled that districts for the House of Representatives must also be equal in populations. Senate (but not state senates) exempt from these rulings because Constitution explicitly mandates that each state shall be given two senators.
C. GERRYMANDERING / drawing legislative boundaries for partisan purposes./ has not changed / common for boundary lines to be shaped to protect or endanger one party's hold of particular districts.
D. RACIAL GERRYMANDERING - creates districts that enhance election opportunities for minorities.
1. Such districts ruled illegal by Supreme Court / called POLITICAL APARTHEID.
2. JOHNSON v. DEGRANDY - civil rights groups concerned with minority representation will have to work outside judicial system to achieve their goals of DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATION.
II. Incumbency factor
A. Members of the House - running for reelection - overwhelming favorites to win (Republican or Democratic) - Rate of reelection House incumbents is over 90 percent. /
1986 - only six incumbents who ran for reelection failed - success rate of 98 percent.
B. Senator / incumbents also likely to win - their reelection rate is lightly less - Incumbents usually win 60 to 85 percent range. / 1980 - REAGAN landslide swept many Senate Democrats out - reduced incumbency success rate to 55 percent. Senators face prominent challenges (such as governors or representatives) / credible challengers can attract the funds needed to run a strong campaign. Senate races are also more visible to the public.
C. Incumbents have advantages of name recognition. / Names are in the paper all the time / frequently interviewed by TV. / They have staffs who keep press releases flowing. They can prepare tapes of their views on issues in recording studios on Capitol Hill. / Transmit them to local radio stations.
1. Members of Congress also have FRANKING PRIVILEGE can mail letters / newsletters for free. Newsletters are helpful campaign tools because they inform readers of all the activities that the legislator is involved in. Each year newsletters pour out of Washington by the millions.
2. Members of Congress have generous travel allowances that allow them to visit their home districts or states frequently.
3. Personal staffs of representatives and senators are large / devoted to casework for individual constituents.
4. Members of Congress also have large staffs in home districts / states. / Puts the members' offices in closer contact with constituents.
D. Members of Congress also do well at election time because most work extremely hard. As a group, they are conscientious highly motivated. /want to be reelected / work at making themselves visible. / Spend a lot of time speaking before home groups / listening to the voters. / They spend long hours on job, / spend much time traveling back and forth between Washington and their home district or state.
E. Despite advantages of incumbency - TERM LIMIT movement has spread into fifteen states, primarily through ballot initiatives. III. Money
A. Money is the number one advantage for incumbents. Incumbents raise money much easier than challengers / Many incumbents face little opposition because challengers do not have enough money to run a credible race.
B. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES or PACs - may give only $5,000 per election (general elections / primaries are separate elections). / Much of an incumbent's funds can come from PACs. / Some incumbents raise over half of their funds from PACs.
C. PACs are incumbent-friendly / They give the vast majority of their money to incumbents / 1986 - PACs gave $89.2 million to incumbents / only $19.2 million to challengers. / money went members of both parties. Incumbents favored by PACs because PACs are most concerned about access to those in office / A PAC may feel that the chairman of a committee isn't as sympathetic to its interests as he could be, but it must contend with him as chairman. If he has lasted long enough in the Congress to rise to a chairmanship, it's highly unlikely that he is going to be defeated. / The PAC doesn't want to risk offending that incumbent by giving to an opponent who may be better on the issues but stands little chance of winning.
D. "Smart" money flows to the incumbent / challenger struggles to raise sufficient funds. / Without money, the challenger loses credibility, chances decrease as individuals and PACs send their donations elsewhere.
1. Money is the single best predictor of a challenger's performance. / " Challengers who are well financed are able to run more competitive races. / Challengers with little money don't stand much of a chance.
2. Challengers will raise money best when their incumbent is seen as vulnerable / age, a previous close call in an election, redistricting, or scandal. More vulnerable incumbents may also draw more and higher quality challengers.
3. A lot of money, including PAC donations, will flow to "open" seats - those where no incumbent is running. / With no incumbent in the picture, open seats represent better investments for those who want to change the ideological or partisan makeup of Congress.
IV. Models of democracy
A. Incumbent dominance in congressional elections works against a more MAJORITARIAN legislative body. A MAJORITARIAN electoral system would be characterized by clearly defined, unified parties / Candidates of a party would articulate a common agenda / pledge to carry out the agenda if their party won most seats in House or Senate. Voters would choose party platform that they preferred / majority would work its will through the electoral process.
B. Political parties have little control over their congressional candidates. / Candidates will raise more from PACs than from their party committees. / Elections are strongly influenced by incumbency / our system promotes pluralism because candidates are relatively free to run on their own version of what the national party stands for.
C. Members of Congress are advocates for their own constituencies and for interest groups that are important back home. But is that desirable?
DEAL MAKING
Bargaining / compromise - central to congressional system. / Rules and norms of House / Senate encourage it
I. Food stamps program
A. Example of bargaining in Congress is passage of food stamp bill in 1964.
B. 1964 - House began serious consideration of a bill that to establish food stamp program on a permanent basis. / Program started in 1961 with a small number of pilot projects.
1. Hunger - an issue in 1960 presidential campaign / w/Democrat Kennedy criticizing / EISENHOWER for not doing enough to combat hunger.
2. Congress - faced with decision. Did it want to start a new welfare program? / Already had social security / Aid to Families with Dependent Children / "welfare state" was considerably smaller then.
3. Kennedy administration actually began a significant move toward social services. Federal aid services - Ways that welfare checks alone could not provide / Were in area of income security
II LOGROLLING
A. A logroll is a case of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." / One member agrees to vote a certain way in exchange for a vote on something else that he or she wants.
III. The bargaining norm
A. In Congress - bargaining is a central part of POLICYMAKING process. / Willingness to bargain allows minorities to build coalitions for passage of key provisions or whole bills.
1. People have been bargaining with each other since the beginning of civilization.
2. In the Congress, it's still exchanging commodities deemed by the participants to be of roughly equal value.
B. Bargaining in Congress is standard operating procedure. Members are expected to bargain.
1. They are not expected to violate their conscience to strike a deal.
2. They are otherwise expected to be willing to bargain in good faith.
C. This type of behavior is facilitated and encouraged by the prevailing norms of the institution.
1. Norms are the unwritten rules of an institution. They are the customs that a peer group respects.
2. Congressmen don't treat their opponents like mortal enemies. They can disagree on one issue and bargain in good faith on another.
a. Their showing of respect during public deliberations manifests this behavior
b. They will refer to each other in debate as "my good friend, the congressmen from . . . ," or "my distinguished colleague. . . ."
c. By minimizing personal antagonism, this norm helps to keep the Congress running smoothly.
D. The bargaining norm is seen by members of Congress as functional / Polarization is reduced, and the willingness to compromise brings successful legislation forth / It is often said that "politics is the art of compromise." If so, congressional POLICYMAKING is a very fine art form.
IV. Leadership
A. Committee chairmen / congressional leaders are pivotal bargainers in Congress.
1. They must try to find compromises / tradeoffs that will yield a bill acceptable to a majority of members.
2. Committee leaders / party leaders have the most to exchange / They can help individual members on matters of particular interest to them.
a. They become the central bargainers / policy tradeoffs are proposed to them and they try to close the deal.
b. Information flows to them because of their position and this enhances their role.
B. Bargaining often mundane
VI. Pluralism and majoritarianism
A. Bargaining / compromise that go on within the two parties / between the two parties in a decentralized authority structure work to promote / power of committees.
B. Committee system: The heart of our pluralistic congressional POLICYMAKING process.
C. To get more MAJORITARIAN congressional system, more power would have to be placed in the party caucus.
1. Caucus - meetings of all members of a legislative party of one house / would decide major issues before the Congress.
2. Caucus following principles that were articulated during last campaign by all legislative candidates.
D. A RESPONSIBLE PARTY SYSTEM - would alter the way POLICYMAKING is carried out in the Congress.
1. Bargaining would not disappear, but it would take place within the majority party.
2. Much power would shift to the party caucus.