POL 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Voting Rights Act Of 1965, Bicameralism, Pork Barrel
Document Summary
Representation: the efforts of elected officials to look out for the interests of those who elect them: applies to all elected officials in the country, not just congress members (ex. Lawmaking: creation of policy to address problems and needs of the entire nation. Local good is different from national good, and members favor representing their local constituencies: ex. Difficult for members to fulfill their collective responsibility of national lawmaking. Explains why americans hate congress as a whole but love their own senators and representatives. A speech educating other countries on american culture and values. Constitutional differences: term length, age, apportionment, treaties, appointments, etc. Organizational differences: (the great compromise, size, number of standing committees, committee assignments per member, rules. Electoral differences: costs of elections: incumbents, challengers, open seats, etc, incumbency advantage. Congress passes bills; president signs or vetoes: president"s state of the union address formulates policy.
