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How does the structure of congress affect its role in the making of policy
The roles of united states congress essay
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The Congress of the United States is designed so that no single party has the power to make legislation without the agreement of the other parties, and the other entities. It is because of this design, coupled with a politicians desire to stay in office, why progress is slow. In Congress, in order for a bill to pass, it must receive a majority ruling; meaning, 218 out of the 435 members of the House, and 51 out of the 100 members of the Senate must vote in favor of passing the bill. Although a simple majority vote may seem easily obtained, party lines and voting records prevent this from happening when it comes to controversial issues. Since voting records can be found online, informed constituents are able to easily gather information about their representatives, and special interest groups are able to re-publish those voting records in order to bring the information to those voters who do not seek it themselves. …show more content…
Also, if a politician chooses to vote against clear party lines, their political party many not endorse them in the election. An endorsement from a major party would boost a politicians campaign. Similarly, a party may not support a piece of legislation that the politician is trying to pass because he or she went against the party in the past. With this in mind, many congressmen choose not to vote against party lines. If a representative chooses not to vote, or votes along party lines, he or she is able to remove the blame placed on him or her when a piece of legislation negatively effects his or her constituents, or he or she is able to show his or her constituents that they tried to make effective change, but because of factors out of his or her control, they were unable to do
It is not uncommon to find members of Congress who have genuine goals of spearheading, designing or even just supporting good public policy. It would be harsh to say that every member of Congress is against good policy. However what is difficult for members of Congress is deciding what is more important, the wishes of their constituents or national policy. Although it is rare, members of Congress vote against the popular opinion of his or her district in order to make what would be considered good policy in the national interest. This hinders their chance of re-election but is necessary for America. In very rare cases members of Congress have gone against the wishes of their constituents for moral reasons like in the aftermath of 9/11. When voting on the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, I am certain that the last thing of the minds of members of Congress was re-election. A very conservative House of Representatives member Jimmy Duncan said ‘‘when I pushed that button to vote against the war back in 2002, I thought I might be ending my political career.” In times of crisis members of Congress have decide between what is right, not what their constituents believe is right. Another goal other than re-election that members of Congress have is their own future. For many, being a members of The House of Representatives is a mere stepping stone in their career on the way to better things. Therefore for some members of Congress, re-election does not worry them and gives them the freedom to act in an environment striped of the constant pressure of re-election. However, considering that most of the members of The House Of Representatives goals lie within the Senate or high executive positions, re-election is still on their mind, all be it in the form of a different
As seen quite often in the Obama administration, legislation gets stuck and lost in Congress due to the polarization of the parties in recent years. In Obama’s case, he has frequently threatened to go around the House and Senate if they could not reach an agreement or would shoot down his plans. Cato’s Pilon points out, however, that the hurdles of Congress are no mistake. Pilot states that the framer’s of the Constitution knew what they were doing, and this was intended to keep the checks and balances as well as accountability to the public (Lyons,
Society cannot let factions become disenfranchised and lose their self determination. The United States, a country founded upon the ideals of freedom and individual prosperity, cannot hold unjust elections brought upon by the current dominant political party. President Johnson created a bipartisan effort to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enriching democracy and continuing the American spirit of democratic values. Johnson united Congress with the simple message, “Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.” (Johnson) Today, the citizens of the United States must push Congress formulate an oversight measure to fix voter
...ilities of Congress is that minorities and factions exist: dissent takes place, not disagreements. Verbal brawls take place rather than actual argumentation, and that is what kills democracy. That is why things never get done.
The United States of America has engaged in the battle known as political polarization since before its foundation in 1776. From the uprising against the powerful British nation to the political issues of today, Americans continue to debate about proper ideology and attempt to choose a side that closely aligns with their personal beliefs. From decade to decade, Americans struggle to determine a proper course of action regarding the country as a whole and will often become divided on important issues. Conflicts between supporters of slavery and abolitionists, between agriculturalists and industrialists, and between industrial workers and capitalists have fueled the divide. At the Congressional level there tends to be a more prevalent display of polarization and is often the blame of Congress’ inefficiency. James Madison intentionally designed Congress to be inefficient by instating a bicameral legislation. Ambition would counter ambition and prevent majority tyranny. George Washington advised against political parties that would contribute to polarization and misrepresentation in his Farewell Address of 1796. Washington warns, “One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.” Today, the struggle to increase power between political parties results in techniques to gain even the smallest marginal gains. To truly understand political polarization, we must examine data collected through a variety of means, the effects of rapidly changing technology, and observe what techniques are used to create such a polarized political system.
This past summer, when I lived and worked in Washington, DC—first as a U.S. Senate Page and then as a Congressional Intern—I gained invaluable experience and insight to the American political system. It is amazing how much one can learn from simply overhearing the conversations of Members of Congress on a daily basis. Working on the floor of the Senate and then in the back rooms of a Congressional office were two entirely different experiences, each teaching me in a distinctive way about how our political system functions. While I most definitely became aware of how bureaucratic and slow our democratic system can be, I also discovered that with a commitment to unity and prosperity for the common good, great feats are attainable through government.
The single-member district election system is the most common and best-known electoral system currently in use in America. It is used to elect the U.S. House Representatives, as well as many state and local legislatures. Under single member district systems, an area is divided into a number of geographically defined voting districts, each represented by a single elected official. Voters can only vote for their district’s representative, with the individual receiving the most votes winning election. This method of electing representatives is better than any alternative solution in various ways. Four compelling reasons to support the single-member district election system include the fact that single-member districts give each voter a single, easily identifiable district member; the way single-member district voting helps protect against overreaching party influence; that single-member districts ensure geographic representation; and finally, that single-member districts are the best way to maximize representatives’ accountability.
Public opinion is like this because many U.S. citizens believe that Congress is not taking the right action to help and benefit the people. Citizens believe that Congress is doing what is best for them and not for this generation and the next of U.S. citizens. A way that Congress could approve its public opinion is that Congress could ask the opinion of citizens and keep it mind. Doing so it would make the people feel like their voice is being heard. Telling the people about what a Bill entails would as well help raise the public opinion of Congress. This is going to be a bill that could affect them; citizens have the right to know what is going on within their own government.
...preferences of veto players have a substantial impact on gridlock in the United States compared to party control of the government.
Roll call votes, number of bills signed and the numbers of presidential vetoes present an interesting method of measuring success. They are quantitative in nature and present a statistical relationship . As Dr. Whitlock put it: “There is a reason Americans prefer football over soccer – we love score. “ Although focus on success is frequent and relatively easy to measure, some scholars including (Collier 1959) have argued that it fails to capture the full picture surrounding the passage of a piece of legislation. For example, as (Collier 1959) remarked, the passage of a piece of legislation signed by the president may be different than the original bill introduced in the Congress. Yet, the president can still claim political victory after the bill passes. In addition, during divided government, when party control is divided between the branches, success in terms of outcomes measures may fail to capture the full picture of which player was really preventing the objective of the
It is very important that there are many steps that must be taken for congress to pass laws. A bill begins in either the House or the Senate where it is drafted. It is then given to the Speaker of the House and given to a committee. This is where most bills are either trashed or they move forward on to the next steps in the process until they ultimately become a law. All of these steps insure that every side gets to voice their opinion on it. Party unity scores shows that 50 percent of Democrats vote agaisnt at least 50 percent of Repulicans and vice-versa. Its the best measure to show how a party will vote because the majority rules each party. Boehner was expected to bring the two parties together and be a speaker for both. Unfortunatley, he was not able to do this which lead to his step down. He needed to manage not only the
Congressional gridlock is primarily caused by opposing parties in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The polarizing
One of the reasons for congressional gridlock is gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is manipulating the boundaries to favor one’s party or class. Gerrymandering creates elected officials who have ideological extremes who use utmost legislative strategies that cause gridlock. Essentially, only citizens can stop gerrymandering and truly restore democratic elections, which is crucial for our democratic elections, including Congress. One solution to ending gridlock is to reduce gerrymandering. Reducing gerrymandering can be done by having commissions re-district after the decennial Census. Another cause of gridlock is the way our government is set up. Our government is unusually structured in a complicated way that combines all of these different concepts that prevent one branch of government from having too much say in certain policy matters and other important governmental decisions, such as law-making. This makes it nearly impossible to come to a legislation agreement in a decent amount of time. (Shep, 3) Gridlock is also caused by representative dynamics. Representative dynamics refers to times when each organization is advanced by someone else just to be in their favor. While other representatives are open to sitting down and working out problems, their constituents are discouraging them. This can be fixed by getting to the root cause of representatives leading in service of only their own interests rather than to follow their
The Legislative Branch of our government has a huge impact on our society. Politicians who are in Legislative positions have the power to create and pass laws. These members have a tremendous impact on how we live our lives diurnally. They are very powerful and this power often times creates egos and selfishness when it is time to be re-elected. The power and the money both cause for politicians in Congress to desire to be re-elected into office, most of the time not for their fellow voters but for themselves and their own views.
The majority and the minority bring forth change in policy in a democratic society. Majority rule means that, if there were an over whelming amount of support on a issue their voices would be heard by the government. Our government is run on a majority rule. People in our society elect officials and put their faiths in them to make their choices.