Poli 110 3

Introduction to congress

Congress (house of reps + senate)

• Legislative branch

• Makes law

• Appropriates funds

• IS THE CONSTITUTION

• Authority is in congress

• If gov is working, it means congress is working

CONGRESS IS THE CONSTITUTION

• Congress is the representation and exercise in the people governing 

Representation: individual responsiveness to individual districts (are they speaking on behalf of the people in the district they represent?”

Lawmaking: collective responsibility for actual governance

INSTITUTIONS INFLUENCE WHICH PLAYERS AND WHICH STRATEGIES ARE ADVANTAGED

• Single-member districts and frequent elections incentivize individual representational activities to build a personal following

• Getting a bill through checks and balances means negotiation, compromise, and frequent failure, so single-member districts discourage collective lawmaking activities to address problems. 

tyranny v efficiency; 

• Longer length of time between election increases risk of tyranny

  • Abuse of power or reduced reponsivenss to voters

• Longer length of time between elections decreases risk of inefficiency

  • Inability to develop the expertise and relationships necessary to govern 

term length; 

• 2 years in the house 

  • Fed 52: frequent elections are unquestionably the only policy by which this dependence and sympathy on voters can be effectually secured

  • The greater the power is, the shorter the duration 

  • House has shortest terms because it has the most power

• 6 years  in the senate

• States can choose term length for state senate/congress

chamber size; 

• 435 in the house

  • Too many people = coordination problem nothing would be able to get done! Inefficency

    • fewer constituents for representatives

  • Too few = abuse of power/tyranny

  • For states, they can choose how many 

• 2 per state for the senate

• Ideal # seats = cube root of the population 

reapportionment; 

• What portion of seats does your state get 

  • Utah started with 3 seats but then after census, gained a 4th seat

• Remember! House only gets 435 seats so they have to decide who gets an extra seat and who will lose one

• “The number of representatives ahll not exceed one for every thirty thousand but each state shall have at least one representative

  • Smalles the house can be = 50 

  • Biggest it can be is 10000

Redistricting

• Up to states to draw district maps

• One seat per district

• Redistricting: Drawing new district map (ex. Utah when new chair was added)

• Partisan gerryamndering: drawing distict maps to privildege one party (gerrymanderring usually = political goal)

  • Districts aren’t into the constitution, only says representatives are proportioned to population

  • There is no constitutionally restriction on partisan gerrymandering

  • If a district is wrapped around another district its probably a partisan gerrymander

    • BUT NOT ALL THE TIME

    • Chicago ex. Hispanic and latino pop - creating a minority majority district

    • Voting rights acts prohibits racial gerrymandering

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Elections and representation

(how members get elected, and how that shapes how they appeal to get reelected)

strategic entry; professional candidate, strategic about when they enter and make the choice to run. (wave election)

• National conditions improve or worsen → rational potential candidates take notice and decide whether to run → one party recruits a stronger field of candidates than the other 

• Strategic entry by professional candidates determines the options available to voters, creating occasional wave elections

amateur candidate; somebody who has never run before, no name recognition or experience. They will lose. A nobody. 

professional candidate; previous political expereince, they threaten incumbents. Very strategic about when they run

wave election; one party (the same as the newly elected president) winning a large amount of seats. 

• The fundamentals correlate heavily with cause of wave elections, national conditions caorrelate with swings (fundamentals).  Voters’ mood shifts from year to year, but not enough to explain large swing states

• Rational choice model of voting!

• Determines when professional candidates run 

• National conditions improve or worsen → rational potential candidates take notice and decide whether to run → one party recruits a stronger field of candidates than the other 

• Each parties incentive to recruit drives wave elections!

incumbent; those who held office before the election seeking reelection

challenger; who is running against the incumbent

open seat; 

incumbency Advantage; already were in office, if running against amateur candidate they will win. 

• Find greater success in seeking reelection. Existing support netwrokds, formal and informal resources of office, home team advantage, name recognition, deter strong challengers

• Rose in 70’s and 80’s and has now lowered due to realignment from the the 4h to 5th party system due to increased polarization

reelection incentive (advertising, credit claiming, position taking); 

• Advertising: the attempt by members to keep their names adn faces favorably in the minds of constituents through efforts that typically deal very little with issues. Keeping your name in front of voters

• Credit claiming: the attempt to appear personally responsible for the favorable actions of a government agency (service representation) or for federal spending tha tbenefits the district (budget representation)

• Position taking: a public issue stance on any subjec, whether it is currently before congress or not, and whether the member plans to take action or not, that appeals to constituents. A big step down from real issue representation. Often general and vague to remain inoffensive

constituency (geographic, reelection, primary, personal); 

issue representation (delegate vs trustee); votes in the same way his party/who he represents would want him to

• Delegate: focused on district

• Trustee: not focused on what district wants (member of congress learning)

other forms of representation (service, budget, descriptive). 

• Budget: steering your share of federal budget dollars back to you (airport, freeways, etc…) benefits geographic constituency

• Service: casework, constituent service, congressman acts like a costumer service desk for the federal gov for constituents to come to with any questions. Benefits geographic constituency

• Descriptive: demographic rep, wanna speak for people like you, ex: the congressional black caucus

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Legislating (lawmaking, congress makes all laws)

bill; a proposed law presented for debate, discussion and approval in a legislative body

law; 

(standing) committee; 

Speaker; 

conference committee; 

Rules Committee (open rule, closed rule, modified closed rule); 

conditional party government; 

unanimous consent agreement; 

filling the amendment tree; 

filibuster; 

cloture; 

initiative (direct, indirect); 

referendum (legislative, popular). 

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The presidency

Littel authority but have persuaded us that they have more, leaned on cabinet/congress to use authority for things they want to do 

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The bureaucracy 

bureaucracy; “a complex structure of offices [i.e. positions], tasks, and rules in which employees have specific responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority 

• The church can be considered a beauracracy has a hierarchy of authority

• Has multiple departments

• Involves tradeoffs: people want experts vs. responsiveness to changing public opinion

  • Clear orgnaiztion, with heirarchail authority vs. flexible, adaptable government administration

• Federal executive branch is one of the biggest bureaucracies on earth

Executive Office of the President; 

• Personal staff and advisors, come and go with the president (congress allows and funds for the president to appoint people)

  • (vice president, council of economic advisers, national security council, national drug control agency, scienc ena dtechnology, environmental quality, office of management and budte, trade representative)

cabinet department;

• Career civil servants (defense, state, treasury)

• Appointed by congress

  • State, justice, commerce, housing and urban development, education, treasury, interior, labor, transportation, veterans affairs, defnse, agriculture, healht and human services, energy, homeland security

independent agency; 

• Government owned corporations

  • US postal service, federal deposit insurance corporation, amtrak, corporation for publici broadcasting

  • Provide services the way a business would but owned by the gov (post office) to reduce partisan tradeoff and lean away from political responsiveness

  • Increase the independence of the entities

• Independent regulatory commissions

  • So sensitive so Separated from politics because fear if we dont, we will shoot ourself in the foot

  • Federal reserve board, national labor relations board, federal trade commission, national transportation safety board, environmental proection agency

  • Sheilded from presidential power 

  • Regulatory agencies: Keep unemployment down and inflation at a reasonable level 

• Other independent executive agences: NASA, CIA, selective service system, social security administration, etc

  • Don’t fit in a specific cabinet department

  • For test dont’ need to know specifics but do need to know the 3 types of independent agencies

merit system; 

regulation; 

• Legislative power

• Congress has the power to pass laws

• Agency in the bearuacy has the power to create and pass laws (fish and wildlife services)

implementation; 

• Executive power

• Vested in the pres

oversight; 

• Oversight policy concerns whether, to what extent, and in what way congress attempts to detect and remedy executive branch violations of legislative goals

police patrol; 

• Mandatory reports

• Hearings and investigations

• Gove accountability office

• Inspectos general

• Legislative veto

fire alarm; 

• Citizen standing

• Casework

• BIGGIE: administrative procedures act “red tape”. E.g. federal register

  • Have to publisize every step and procedure they do. Must be a paper trail for everything

Federal Register; 

OMB; 

• Office of management and budget

central clearance:

• Agency communications with congress must first by cleared by OMB as consistent with the president agenda

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The judiciary

statutory law; 

• A law that came out of congress

• Statutes/legislation, US Code, Utah Code

• Law coming out of the legislative branch

constitutional law; 

• Civil liberties, powers of the govt

• Law coming out of constitution, bill of rights

administrative law; 

• Rules, regulations, executive orders, etc

• Law coming out of the executive branch

case law; 

• Common law, precedent (brown v. board, plessy v. ferguson, etc.)

• Case law is BROADER than common law, rise of using precedence to solving big questions. We use a common law system 

common law system vs civil law system; 

• Criminal case: a prosecutor accuses a defendant of breaking a statutory law. Result might be fines or prison. Ex: murder, theft, kidnapping, drug trafficking. Always defined in statute. 

• Civil case: an individual sues a person, organization or the gov, seeking damages for something like an injury, wrongful death, property damage, or employment discrimination as defined in common law (past rulings) or statute. Also, cases involving eviction, debt collection, etc. 

• Common law: courts make law through their rulings

  • Unless overriden by statute, case law stipulates what constitutesf an offense under the common law, how to determin intent vs negligence, and appropriate remedies. 

• Civil law

  • Ex: Law of moses

  • Under common law principles developed long before there was a written constitution

precedent; 

• Previous court ruling

• Cas law

stare decisis; 

• Policy of the court to stand by precedent 

District Court; 

• Conduct trails: Judge or jury hears evidence to determine facts of the case (civil or criminal)

Circuit Court of Appeals; 

• Panel of judges ensures trial was fair and law was correctly applied 

US Supreme Court; 

• All judicial power of the United States

• Establish broad interpretations of law to guide lower courts

trial court; 

• District courts

• Jury, judge

specialty court; 

• State Supreme court

intermediate court of appeals; 

• Circuit court

state supreme court; 

• Specialtiy court

judicial review; 

• The authority of the court to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional and therefore invalide

Marbury v Madison; 

• First major punchline on judicial review

decision to decide (rule of four, writ of certiorari); 

• Deciding which cases the supreme court will here

  • Sees about 70-80 cases a year

• Used to be where SCOTUS had to see ALL cases but they went to congress and asked to be able to CHOOSE what cases they wanted to take

• The rule of 4

  • If 4/9 justices want to hear the case, they have to hear the case

• Writ of certiorari:

  • Fancy name for the written document stating the Court will hear the case

decision on the merits (amicus curiae; 

• Procedure

  • 1. Written briefs

    • Outlines why they want it/argument and the question presented that SCOTUS hopes to answer. 

  • 2. Oral arguments

    • SCOTUS reads the brief and has both sides come in a present their case/argument orally

    • Tends to just be judges asking questions

  • 3. Private deliberation

    • After oral argument the 9 judges sit down in a room and discuss the case and have a non biding straw poll on who should when (petitioner/responder) when it is  decided they ask the winning side has to write a drafted opinion on why they should take that side. After this, they vote again.

    • Can go on for weeks or months

    • Drafts of both sides are constantly circulated

  • 4. Announce decision (majority, concurrence, dissent)

majority opinion; 

• Majority of the judges decide to side with a specific side of the case (petitioner or repondant)

dissenting opinion; 

• Judges who disagree with the majority opinion can write this about why they should choose the other side or use different reasoning

concurring opinion); 

originalism; 

• Investigate the original meaning of the constitution as understood at the time. 

• Read federalist adn anti-federalist papers, records from state ratifying convention debates, etc. 

• Understanding how they expected this to play out in the future

• Conservative judges

• Original purpose

living Constitution; 

• The constitution was made for the people, not the people for the constitution. The constitution leaves room to read it consisten with modern standards. 

• Liberal judges

• Original meaning

merit plan. 

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REVIEW! (start praying)

American political institutions: how the rules shape advantagesand incentives

• Frequent elections with single-memebr districts favor representation over alwmaking

• Who benefits from house vs. senate rules

• The legistativne process vs direct demccracy

• How presidents rely on informal power

• Designing and managing a large bureaucracy

• Interpreting the ocnstiutiton through judicial review