1.Identify each of the important differences that exist in the way the House of Representatives and the Senate represent the American people. Does the existence of two very different, yet co-equal law-making bodies enhance our democracy, or hinder it? Explain.
United States of America is a bicameral legislature which shares the concept of a legislation keeping in mind the interests of both its people and the Welfare of the state taken collectively. House of the representatives seek the Welfare and interest of the people whose representation is done by 435 members whereas the Senate represents 2 members from each state which are concerned about the development of the state. Since United States have two different set of laws 1 for the Federal government and another for the state government both there interest have to be maintained for which bicameral legislature is needed. As the forefathers of the constitution saw it fit that the division of power should be equal they have made this system to establish democracy as anyone house does not have the power of absolute legislation in the country.
2.Do members of Congress truly care about the views of average Americans? Relate how an examination of the “sociological representation” and “agency representation” of members of Congress can give us very different answers to this question. Be sure to relate the details of the current membership of Congress. What is your view? Do they really care about our views?
It has been observed that members of the Congress are more focused on the issues of social logical representation which are agenda driven and take the issues of gay rights uncertain topics specific to various ethnic groups. Whereas when agency representation is taken into account it refers to different agencies of the government in which the Congress members have keen interest in solving the problems because they are the servants and members of the oversight committees of many government agencies. Recently it has been in use that the Congress member representing San Francisco is more interested in the issues of gay rights as a substantial number of people are gay in that constituency. In the same way Senator of the New Hampshire is a very knowledgeable person in the matters of financial issues and you also serves in the committee of Senate Banking.
3.Explain how (a) incumbency, (b) apportionment and redistricting, and (c) direct patronage help to keep most of the same people in Congress, election after election. Does it hurt our democracy to have mostly the same people in office after every election? Explain your reasoning.
Incumbency is holding of a political affairs for which candidate is running for. Congress members have many tools with the help of which they keep their?office for reelection. Incumbency helps the respective candidates to keep the office and scare off the candidates as it provides money contacts and popularity. Apportionment is the process of seat allocation in the Congress among 50 states. Whereas, redistricting is the process of redrawing districts of election and redistribution of representatives in the legislative. Both these things happen at every 10 years. It is done to pit in comments of the same party against each other and for voter clustering an ideological background. Direct patronage is used with the help of Legislative bodies to create local projects which are not necessary but had done to ensure the victory of local representatives in their home district.
4.Identify the people who lead both the Senate and the House and explain what powers they have. Then, relate how the committee system is set up, who leads these committees, and how they operate. Is it acceptable that all of these powerful leadership positions are chosen by fellow members of Congress? Or, would it enhance our democracy if these offices were directly elected by the people? Explain your reasoning.
President of the United States of America is the principle leader of the Senate. Speaker of the House is the principle leader of the House. President presides over the daily sessions, maintains order, defines the parliamentary motions, appoints members and committee chairs and signs warrants, writs and legislations. Speaker has almost same functions in the house as that of the President in the senate. There are many committees in both Senate as well as in the House. Senate has three main committees which are Finance, Judiciary and Foreign Relations. There are other sub committees in Senate as well as in the House. These committees are headed by the Senators and the members of the house. Leaders of all these committees are chosen and headed by the congress members who are specialist in their respective fields which is necessary for proper functioning of these committees.
5.Review what happens at each step of the process whereby a bill becomes a law: (a) committee deliberation, (b) debate, (c) conference committee, and (d) presidential action. With all of these steps, it takes a long time before any bill is adopted, and most do not make it through. Is this convoluted process a positive or a negative feature for our democracy? Explain
Speaker of the House or the presiding officer in the Senate at first refers the bill to the appropriation committee. The bill is then differentiated into separate parts and is sent to the respective committees. Debate is done on the provisions of the bill in the House as well as in the Senate. There can only be discussions in which amendments can be proposed but cannot be passed.Conference Committee members from each chamber get together to find out the differences between the two bills. Committee is comprised of the senior members which are appointed by the committee itself. After the discussion in the committee they reach to a compromise in the bill and a conference report is submitted in that respect. President has to sign the bill and if he does not sign it within 10 days when Congress is in session, the bill gets passed.
6.Identify and discuss what individual members of Congress consider when deciding which bills to support and which to oppose. Which of these factors tend to be most and least influential? What are the consequences when Congress can’t decide?
Factors which influence the decision making for Congressmen are personal status of the introducer, home district of the introducer, nature of constituency, party and its leaders, committees, lobbyists, staff and the governor. All of these factors prove to be influential according to the situation and type of the bill.
7.Your Future:
The authors make the point that “when Congress is ineffective, American democracy suffers” (p. 498). The many dysfunctions of Congress in recent years have led to calls for reform. Consult this CNN article from 2012, and consider each of the three reforms. Are you in favor of any of these, or should Congress be left the way it is? Be sure to comment on each reform, relating what you have learned about Congress in this chapter.
Congress has been dysfunctional in the recent years and has mainly shown its ignorance towards some issues. The first issue is of no budget no pay. Congress has been unable to pass the budget on time which has led to the delay in payment of salaries to the Government employees. This shows the gross in incapacity of Congress which should not be tolerated. People of US should apply pressure on the Congress and its activities to smoothen up its functions. It will show the awareness level people which are a sign of awareness . Another issue is filibuster reform which has been misused and abused by the Congress in the recent years. Congress has made this a routine parliamentary system to create problems in passing the legislation as well as in voting. It has been observed that in the last 50 years filibuster was used 35 times. But in the last 2 years the same filibuster method has been applied about hundred times. The last issue is of up or down vote in 90 days. Since the days of Clinton Presidency more than 70 nominations have been blocked even before they have gone for up and down vote. In the last few years about 200 presidential appointments were left untouched which consisted of top directorate posts and positions and even the federal judgeships. Many of these positions which were to be filled worth dignified and intellectual officials were left open which in turn let those people on the sidelines.
References
Inglehart, Ronald. The Silent Revolution (2017).
Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir and Tolbert. WE THE PEOPLE. FULL 11TH EDITION. WW Norton, 2016.
Hamilton, Melissa. “Constitutional Law and the Role of Scientific Evidence: The Transformative Potential of Doe v. Snyder.” Boston College Law Review 58.6 (2017): E-Supp.
McKay, David. American politics and society. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Ramey, Adam J., Jonathan D. Klingler, and Gary E. Hollibaugh Jr. More than a Feeling: Personality, Polarization, and the Transformation of the US Congress. University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Rose-Ackerman, Susan, Peter L. Lindseth, and Blake Emerson, eds. Comparative administrative law. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017.
Wilson, Woodrow. Congressional government: A study in American politics. Routledge, 2017.
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