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American Gov Quiz 3
Congress/Presidency
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many members of the house are there? | 435 |
| How many members of the senate are there? | 100 |
| Senates represents _ and more _ compared to the House | Larger, diverse constituencies |
| Members of Congress need to be _ with their constituents. | Responsive |
| What are the 4 concentric circles? | Geographic, reelection, primary, personal |
| How many years are house terms? | 2 |
| How many years are senate terms? | 6 |
| Age limit for house | 25 |
| Age limit for senate | 30 |
| How long do you have to be a US citizen for house? | 7 years |
| How long do you have to be a US citizen for senate? | 9 years |
| The house is elected by the people of the | district |
| The senate is elected by the people of the | state |
| Powers of congress | Impose taxes, print/borrow money, regulate interstate commerce, authorize wars, confirm nominees, and ratify treaties. |
| The House is intended to represent | The people |
| The senate is intended to act as a | Check on the people |
| In redistricting, _ have the authority to draw lines | states |
| What is gerrymandering? | Drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party a disproportionately large share of seats for the share of votes its candidates wins |
| Delegate | A representative who acts and votes according to the preferences of his or her constituency |
| Trustee | A representative who votes based on what he or she thinks is best for his or her constituency |
| Substantive representation | Representatives who act for and in the best interest of their constituents |
| Descriptive representation | Representatives who share the same characteristics as those they represent |
| Symbolic representation | Representatives who "stand for" the people they represent and are accepted, therefore, as legitimate representatives |
| Promissory representation | Promises during elections, elected to enact those promises. |
| Anticipatory representation | Elected or reelected based on prior record |
| Gyroscopic representation | Elected based on evaluations of quality |
| Surrogate representation | Based on appeal/support from those outside their district |
| In the 19th century,, congressional campaigning was more _ | Party-Centered (Parties provide voters with ballots) |
| In the 20th century, Changes in laws around turn of 20th century led to _ | Ticket splitting (Primary elections began to open to regular voters. Private ballots became the norm) |
| How are representatives agents? | Focus on local issues, obtain key committee assignments, engage in casework, help constituents apply for federal benefits, and assist with immigration cases |
| 1960-2010 marked major split-ticket voting with large _ advantage | large incumbency |
| Why large incumbency? | Candidates emphasize individual character, pork barrel projects for the district, ability to raise large amounts of money, increases in staff size to help constituents, name recognition |
| Incumbency advantage often inflated due to | dropouts |
| Geographical sorting equates to | Fewer marginal seats |
| Increased polarization at the national level means | Party “brands” are more consistent across country ("Democrat” used to have different meaning in the South vs. the North) |
| Now, partisanship is equal to | Identity, not policy |
| The six problems with legislative organization | Need for Information, coordination problems, resolving conflicts, collective action, transaction costs, time pressures |
| What is need for information? | Legislators often not policy experts |
| What are solutions for information-shortage? | Division of labor and specialization, staff for the members themselves, guidance from party leadership |
| What are coordination problems? | The greater the size of the legislative body, the harder it is to coordinate |
| What are solutions for coordination problems? | Conformity costs (house has tremendous power, senate's power is more diffused) |
| What do resolving conflicts do? | Compromise a part of a legislator’s job |
| How do resolving conflicts occur? | Some rules facilitate conflict resolution, political parties serve as ready-made coalitions, not all rules facilitate conflict resolution |
| What does collective action do? | Members have a lot of different goals: Re-election, pet projects, expertise in a particular area. serving one of their core, constituencies |
| What do the goals of collective action do? | Set up prisoners’ dilemmas |
| What are transaction costs? | Building coalitions can be costly. Rules pertaining to the legislative process get around these costs |
| What kind of rules have been set by transaction costs? | Specifies how a bill can be debated and amended |
| What are the norms/precedents of transaction costs? | Which committee bills are assigned to, how the committee markup is conducted |
| What are time pressures? | Congress has limited time to do a lot, budgets are supposed to be approved each year, appropriations bills pass or shutdown ensues. These have grown as the scope of the government has grown. |
| What are the solutions to time pressures? | Limiting debate, the filibuster |
| Institutions that organize congress | The parties and committees |
| Parties in the house are | essential units of governing |
| Leadership in parties in the house are determined by | The Republican Conference/Democratic Caucus |
| Speaker of the house | Leader of the majority party, has the most influence, both parties have whips and deputy whips (in charge of specific issue areas) |
| Majority leader | Elected by the majority party; second in leadership after the speaker |
| Minority leader | Leader of the minority party |
| Whip | Coordinates the party’s legislative strategy, builds support for the leadership’s agenda, and counts votes |
| The vice president is | President of the Senate, casts tie-breaking votes |
| _ is president of the senate in absence of VP | President pro tempore |
| Real power in the senate lies with the | Majority leader and minority leader |
| The majority leader and minority leader control | Senate’s calendar and agenda for legislation |
| _ has greater power in the Senate than House | Minority party |
| Unanimous consent agreements | A unanimous resolution in the Senate restricting debate and limiting amendments to bills on the floor |
| Rule 22 | Debate can be limited with a vote (created in 1917) |
| Prior to 1917 | no rules were needed to limit debate |
| _ determines committee assignments | Party Leadership |
| What are the 4 system comprises | Standing committees, select committees, joint committees, conference committees |
| Standing committees | permanent committees with the power to propose and write legislation (Covers a particular subject matter, broken into subcommittees, conduct hearings, launch investigations) |
| Select committees | Temporary legislative committees set up to highlight or investigate a particular issue (Hold hearings to investigate particular problems, bring attention to issues that fall outside the jurisdictions of existing committees) |
| Joint committees | Members of both the House and Senate (Permanent committees, but cannot present legislation to congress; they gather information and cover internal congressional issues) |
| Four joint committees | Economic, taxation, library, printing |
| Conference committees | Compromise on House and Senate versions of a piece of legislation (same wording of the bill must be passed by both chambers of Congress, conference committee writes final version, members appointed by House Speaker and Senate presiding office) |
| Republica have _ for committees | term limits |
| In regards to committees, Democrats | Respect seniority, but have work-arounds |
| What are the Democrat's work arounds for seniority in committees | Multiple referrals (dilutes the power of any one committee) and party leadership (can send bills straight to the Committee of the Whole) |
| The money committee in the house | Handles revenues (way and means) and spending (appropriations) |
| The money committee in the senate | Handles revenues (finances) and spending (appropriations) |
| Government spending takes part in two steps | Authorizing (Budgeting for it) and appropriating (Actually spending it) |
| Budget committees have | Little power, since appropriations don’t have to follow budget |
| Entitlements | A benefit every eligible person has a legal right to receive that cannot be taken away without a change in legislation or due process in court |
| Money committees have _ power over entitlements | Little |
| A bill is proposed by being _ by a member and submitted to the _ | Sponsered, House/Senate clerk |
| Once a bill is submitted it is | Referred to committee by party leadership or parliamentarian |
| Committee Markup | Sessions in which committees rewrite legislation to incorporate changes |
| A full committee may | May accept recommendations of subcommittee or hold their own hearings |
| A subcommittee may | hold hearings, listen to testimony, and amend bill, or they may do nothing, and the bill dies |
| Open rule in the house | All amendments allowed |
| Restricted rule in the house | Only some types of amendments allowed |
| Closed rule in the house | No amendments allowed |
| Bill’s _and _ control the time | Sponsor, leading opponent |
| Committees vote to | Send a bill to the floor for debate |
| Filibuster | Tactic to prevent action by holding the floor and speaking until the majority backs down |
| Cloture | Procedure to end the filibuster, requires approval of 60% of Senate |
| Tools outside of a filibuster the senate can use to prevent action | Propose unlimited amendments, look for poison pills to kill a bill, put “holds” on bills |
| When a bill is passed with different wording in the two chambers | It goes to a conference committee (appointed by party leadership) and conference committee reconciles the two bills |
| President has 10 days to either _ or _ a bill | Sign, veto |
| vetoes can be overridden by | 2/3 majority in each chamber |
| pocket veto | president does not act but the legislative session ends |
| Why pocket veto? | Public relations |
| Ways to short-circuit “Regular Order” | Closed rules, multiple referrals, omnibus legislation |
| In Old-School presidency the power of the president is _ | Weak |
| President has some leeway on matters of | Foreign policy and war |
| In the 19th century, the president | Served advisory role domestically |
| In Old-School Presidency, _ did the main work | Cabinet secretaries |
| Cabinets are confirmed by | Congress |
| Cabinet members have their own | Ambitions/agendas |
| In Old-School Presidency the president primarily served as the | Head of parties |
| During Old-School Presidency, parties liked _ suits with broad, national appeal | Empty |
| Why have we evolved into the New School Presidency? | Federal government has grown in scope |
| In New School Presidency, Congress | Delegates power to president |
| What happens when the party out of the White House controls Congress? | More investigations, executive privilege, executive orders, more oversight, more gridlock, more “going public” |
| What happens when the party in the White House controls Congress? | Rubber stamp, weak Congress |
| Five authorities and powers of the president | Commander in Chief, Head of State, Chief Executive, Chief Legislator, and Going Public |
| Commander in Chief | Originally the main job (Framers wanted government strong enough to defend the homeland) |
| Head of State | Presidents in charge of foreign policy (can sidestep congress through executive orders and choose to recognize the governments of other countries or not) |
| Chief Executive | President gets to appoint “principal” members of the administration and “inferior” |
| As chief executive, the president can gain power through | Delegation, unilateral action, claiming emergency powers, and budgeting |
| President as a Legislator | Maintains relationships in Congress (often through favors), serve as a focal point, being the leader of the party, using the veto |
| The president uses vetoes more during | Divided government |
| What is more common than vetoes? | Veto threats |
| What approach forces presidents to make threats? | "Take it or leave it" |
| Presidents may veto, and then blame | Congress |
| Due to political polarization, overrides are | Rare |
| Signing statements | Outlines a president’s thinking about a bill, can be used by judges when interpreting the intent of a law, may also be used to justify not enforcing portion of a law |
| Signing statements are of _ legal standing | Dubious |
| Unilateral Action | Not technically legislation, thus the president can do it |
| Executive Orders | Directive to an executive agency establishing new policies or indicating how policies should be carried out |
| Presidential Memorandum | Directive to alter administration policies |
| What are ways in which a president goes public? | Promoting policies, promoting their accomplishments, promoting their qualities as leaders |
| How do presidents go public? | State of the Union, primetime addresses to the nation, social media, whistlestop tours of the country |
| Whether “going public” works is | Contested |
| Presidents normally have a _ during the first 100 days | Honeymoon phase |
| _ _ leads to lower poll numbers | Negativity bias |
| “Rally-around-the-flag effect” | Presidents serve as focal point during crises and is rewarded for reacting to threats |
| As Congress delegated more | presidency grew |
| Purpose of presidential agencies | Purpose: • Shadow agencies, supports the president without taking credit, coordinates between legislative and executive branch |
| The Executive Office of the President originally housed _ presidential agencies. | 5 |
| Why are there so many White House employees now? | Role of president expanded, and going public has become more central to the presidency |
| What type of person wants to work at the White House? | Professional climbers, people who want to be close to power, people with a constituency, people with their own policy agenda |
| Both the White House and Congress have a | Revolving door problem |
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KenzieMWallace105
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