POL 201: Intro' To American Politics

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POL 201 Intro. To American Politics

• Professor Casey Klofstad

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Last Time Electoral Politics

• Presidential campaigns primaries the Electoral
  College
• Congress primaries, reapportionment incumbency
  advantage
• Other issues
• money is essential to campaigns
• do campaigns matter?
• descriptive representation and districting

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Lecture 13 Congress in Office

• Enumerated powers
• Delegate and trustee representation
• Design of congress
• parties, committee system, rules
• How a bill becomes a law
• Public opinion on Congress

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Two Styles of Representation

• Delegate
• act the way your constituents want you to, no
  matter what
• who? competitive seats, House
• Trustee
• do what you think is right, even if that goes
  against your constituents
• who? safe-seats, Senate

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Congress is Bicameral

• Power is split between two chambers House and
  Senate
• WHY?
• CT Compromise
• division of power checks and balances
• dynamic, yet stable system

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Parties Provide Leadership

• House Speaker (majority party)
• Majority and minority leaders
• chief lieutenants
• Majority and minority Whips
• facilitate communication between party leaders
  and party members

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Why Committees?

• Division of labor and sources of expert knowledge
• Distributive Politics legislators like to
  provide benefits to their districts
• logrolling trading favors to get goodies for
  your district

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Types of Committees

• Standing committees/subcommittees
• Other types of temporary committees
• select committees
• committees that bring the House and Senate
  together (e.g., joint committees and
  conference committees)

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Forming Committees

• Committee assignments are controlled by the
  parties
• so, the majority party gets an advantage
• Seniority also matters
• the longer you have been in office the better
  assignments you get
• seniority (and party) also determines who leads
  the committee

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Rules and Norms

• House more rule-bound
• debate is more structured, and the majority has a
  lot of power
• Senate fewer rules
• debate is more fluid, and minority viewpoints
  have more power than they do in the House

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Rules of Debate

• Schedule (which bills get considered)
• House Rules Committee
• Senate unanimous consent
• Length of debate
• House limited by Rules Committee
• Senate unlimited (filibusters cloture)

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How A Bill Becomes A Law
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Step 1 Introducing Legislation

• Bill is introduced by a Member of Congress (the
  bills sponsor)
• Role of interest groups
• draw attention to issues
• provide information and even help draft
  legislation

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Step 2 Committee Stage

• Leadership assigns the bill to a committee(s)
• Committee Chair assigns the bill to a
  Subcommittee
• (Sub)committee hearings markup
• role of interest groups (provide testimony)

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Step 3 Floor Debate (HOUSE)

• Uncontroversial bills can be passed by
  suspension of the rules
• limited debate 2/3rds vote to pass
• Other bills are debated based on the rules set by
  the Rules Committee
• a simple majority is usually required to pass a
  bill

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Step 3 Floor Debate (SENATE)

• Uncontroversial bills are passed by unanimous
  consent
• Other bills are debated based on rules set by
  committee/party leaders
• filibuster in play cloture required to stop
  debate
• simple majority usually required to pass

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Step 4 Conference Committee

• House and Senate bills must be identical
• Joint committee of House and Senate meet to draft
  a compromise
• House and Senate then vote on the revised bill

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Step 5 President

• Signs bill into law (or nota veto)
• A veto can be overridden by 2/3rds of Congress
• vetoes are rare because Congress passes bills
  that are likely to be signed

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Step 6 Authorization

• Congress has to decide how will enforcement of
  the law be funded.
• Congress also needs to decide who will enforce
  the law.
• role of executive branch (bureaucracy)

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Checks and Balances

• Congress can
• pass laws
• impeach the president
• confirm justices and other presidential
  appointees
• engage in bureaucratic agency oversight
  (budgets, hearings, etc)

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Problems With Congress

• Lawmaking is slow and inefficient (by design)
• System favors status quo and minority interests
• Pursuit of special interests, at the expense of
  the greater good?

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Americans Views on Who is Ethical and Honest
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A Paradox

• We hate Congress, but we love our own legislators
• WHY?
• what makes Congress good at serving the districts
  make it bad at providing for the general good

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Two Styles of Representation

• Delegate
• act the way your constituents want you to, no
  matter what
• who? competitive seats, House
• Trustee
• do what you think is right, even if that goes
  against your constituents
• who? safe-seats, Senate

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POL 201 Intro. To American Politics

• Professor Casey Klofstad