POLSCI 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Bicameralism, Connecticut Compromise, Gerrymandering
11 Jun 2018
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2/12/18 - Congress:
Members of Congress:
● Who can run for congress?x
○ House
■ Article 1 Section 2
■ 25 or older
■ Citizen of U.S. for at least 7 years
■ Have to reside in state that you run for
○ Senate (considered more prestigious)
■ Article 1 Section 3
■ 30 or older
■ Citizen of U.S. for at least 9 years
■ Have to reside in state that you run for
○ 115th congress
■ In-balance in terms of gender
■ Mainly protestant/catholic, some that don’t identify
■ Median income is 1,008,767 (compared to avg. household income of 57,000)
○ What does representation mean
■ Congress does not match actual public
● Descriptively, congress does not look like the rest of the country
○ Argument that this is very important in congress
■ Substantive representation:
● Just because diff backgrounds, demographics, etc. -- they are still able to
listen to you and fight for your preferences
○ Elections are mechanism for this; vote out people that aren’t
listening to your needs
Elections:
● Great Compromise:
○ Small state v. big state
■ Small = equal representatives
■ Bigger = based on population
○ Bicameral legislature as a result
■ Small states got senate, big states got the house
■ House:
● 2 year terms
● Chosen by districts
● 435 members
■ Senate:
● 6 year terms
● Chosen by state
● 100 members
■ Effects
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Citizen of u. s. for at least 7 years. Citizen of u. s. for at least 9 years. Have to reside in state that you run for. Median income is 1,008,767 (compared to avg. household income of 57,000) Descriptively, congress does not look like the rest of the country. Argument that this is very important in congress. - they are still able to listen to you and fight for your preferences. Elections are mechanism for this; vote out people that aren"t listening to your needs. Small states got senate, big states got the house. Different in size means that who you elect in the senate more improvement. Term length - 6 year allows you to dive into what you are interested in, more time to think about things. 6 more years to get someone else in if you disagree with what they do. House - pressure to move on things. Based on census - # of representatives each states gets can change.
