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| 7645281084 | The Iron Triangle | -Interest groups can influence congressional votes in their favor, and in return, help congressmen get re-elected by supporting their programs -Congress can support the bureaucracy through funding and political support, and the bureaucracy will then support congress's policy choices and execution -the Bureaucracy will provide low regulation and special favors to interest groups in exchange for congressional support via lobbying policy ex. Oil lobbyist and the department of energy: Department of energy head (bureaucracy) wants to renew funding for his department which needs approval from Congress, in return, the bureaucrat agrees to use some of that funding for a pork-barrel project in that congressman's district (Ex. congressman from Texas), the project will create jobs in his district because many of his constituents work for the oil industry, an interest group that supports the oil industry promised to support this congressman in the upcoming election if he gets funding for this project, bureaucracy provides low regulations and special favors to encourage their support of the congressman |  | 0 |
| 7645401517 | The Committee System | -legislation starts in the committees (creates better legislation), committees are not a constitutional necessity (not mentioned in the constitution), only Congress can write a bill and introduce legislation, but the house is a majoritarian institution and can skip the committee process if they so desire -committees also have oversight function: oversee actions of Congress, can be exploited for grandstanding purposes in order to give a member their 15 seconds of fame or try and show the public that Congress is doing something when their actually not (ex. baseball and steroids), can issues subpoenas for oversight hearings but cannot hold criminal investigations, can be good when the oversight committees expose bad behavior in Congress, but a waste of time and funds when used for show, -organization: majority party organizes the committees (name, members,etc.), membership in a committee encourages expertise when members are part of the same committee for a long period of time, members look to be on committees that benefit their districts -subcommittees: there are a lot of subcommittees, but they're not all very active and only meet a couple of times a year, constituents of the full committee (foreign relations- separate committees for Europe, Africa, etc), Subcommittee chairs are usually full committee chairs, important relationship with interest groups (that are relevant to those committees), can be a good thing if it creates dialogue on legislation but bad if it prevents reforms in certain industries when those industries are dictating the actions fo the committees | 1 | |
| 7645780187 | the importance of political parties in Congress in elections, in the policymaking process, in the leadership teams and in the committee system | -Committees reflect partisan make-up of Congress -the basis of collective action in Congress -Committee chairs belong to the majority party -an essential part of Congress -bring organization to Congress (party cohesion) -Promote a sense of accountability because parties force members to work together (as a team, strength in numbers, working together to get each others' policies passed) -Parties prevent members from being more selfish and putting their own goals before common goals of the party or the constituents -selfish members can be punished because of the organization of political parties -well organized parties have a sort of hierarchy where members can build up seniority | 2 | |
| 7645938320 | What is the purpose of caucuses in Congress that are organized around specific issues and interests? Being able to give examples of caucuses is recommended. | -Caucuses are composed of members of Congress that form an alliance to support bills relevant to that cause -purpose: strength in numbers, especially if the caucuses are bipartisan -Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Battlefield Caucus | 3 | |
| 7646002617 | Line Item Veto. What is it and what are the arguments for and against it? | -Line item veto is the ability for the President to veto certain parts of a Bill without vetoing the whole bill -Against: If the President can take out anything he wants in the Bill, it is a completely different piece of legislation than what Congress passed and gives the President more power over Congress -For: President can veto unnecessary spending/pork barrel projects -Governors have this power, but the President does not | 4 | |
| 7646147528 | The tension between a member of Congress' party loyalty and service to his or her district or state. | Members of Congress have to preform a balancing act between being loyal to their party and being loyal to their constituents | 5 | |
| 7646156260 | Why was Henry Clay a significant Speaker of the House? | -The Consitution does not say much about the speaker of the House -Constitutionally, does not have to be a member of Congress, but if he is not a member, he cannot vote -favored building up the military and the navy, standing up to Britain, supported internal improvements -Became speaker, and the most powerful in history up to that point -Used his position to become a party leader, given that he is third in line for the Presidency -Consolidated power of the Speaker more so than previous speakers who were more like parliamentary officers | 6 | |
| 7646273420 | You should know what the old congressional nominating caucus was (the device used to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the early 19th century). | -Prior to primaries, Presidential candidates were nominated through conventions -before conventions, they used party caucuses -party nominees were chosen by fellow party members in Congress: the congressional nominating caucus -would convene every four years to decide whom they should nominate for President and Vice President | 7 | |
| 7651678751 | How a Democratic President in 2008 and 2010 affected democratic seats in congress | The Democrats won a lot of congressional seats in Republican territory in 2006 and 2008. By 2010, with a Democratic president in office, it was going to be very hard for the party NOT to lose a lot of seats. In the end, Democrats lost the House (-62) and lost 6 in the Senate. | 8 | |
| 7651775553 | "Pork barrel" spending, and why it is controversial, but also why it is so important to so many members of Congress. Remember that "pork" is in the eye of the beholder. | "pork barrel" spending is when special projects are written into a bill in order to gain more support and votes to pass the bill, it helps congressmen gain support from their districts because their senators/reps are working for their interest, controversial because it can be seen seen as wasteful spending that is only benefitting people in those districts, in the eye of the beholder because people complain about "pork barrel" spending when the projects go to other districts but not when it benefits their own district | 9 | |
| 7651907141 | The political significance of constituent service in Congress. How does constituent service enhance the incumbency advantage and provide members of Congress with political cover? | -if members are successful at doing good constituent casework, it deters top-level competitors from running for their seat -the goal is to ensure reelection by large margins to earn a safe seat -a way to build up political goodwill because constituents appreciate when their members of Congress do good casework | 10 | |
| 7651963617 | what are the three policy arenas? examples? | distributive: the goal is to meet the needs of various groups, benefit mostly everybody, paid for by everybody, we tend to take these programs for granted (ex. national parks, infrastructure, national museums, etc.) re-distributive: more controversial, generally directed towards helping disadvantaged citizens, those who pay tend to be those who are economically better off (ex. social security, Medicare, Medicaid) regulatory: desired to restrict or change the behavior of individuals or institutions, more divisive | 11 | |
| 7652122390 | seniority in Congress and Rules changes in the selection of committee chairs in 1974-75 | -at the beginning of the 20th century, committees became more independent and no longer reflected the makeup nor the agenda of the majority party in Congress -committee chairs were doled out on the basis of seniority (and they were part of the majority party) -seniority benefited the democratic, southern members of Congress who had safe districts and it made it difficult for the civil rights movement -Post-Watergate reforms -making seniority less important in chairmanship selections. That said, seniority is still pretty important in Congress. -watergate class railed against the seniority system -demanded that chairmanships be allocated on the basis of a majority party vote instead of being hand picked by the speaker/based on seniority | 12 | |
| 7652277103 | The responsibilities and political significance of the committee Chair and Ranking Member. | -ranking member is the leading member of the minority party of their respecting committees -work with the majority party on compromises represents the minority party on fighting the majority party when necessary -also, represent the minority party in front of the public - | 13 | |
| 7655532677 | Congressional elections: how are they different from presidential campaigns? | -less money in a Congressional race than in a Presidential race -many Congressional races aren't competitive because of an incumbency advantage for the candidate or the party -80-97% of incumbents are reelected -voter turn out is lower: voters who show up are those who identify more strongly with a party or ideology -Gerrymandering makes Congressional districts safe -Congressional races are predominantly about local issues | 14 | |
| 7655585062 | The DCCC, NRCC, DSCC and the NRSC and what they do. | -Fundraising committees for the Democratic and Republican parties -Raise money all year long -function is to get their party members elected to Congress -There to help candidates -Possibly incumbents who are in trouble or to try and fight for a seat that is held by the opposing party | 15 | |
| 7655708749 | The coattail effect and the surge and decline phenomenon. | -The party of the winning Presidential candidate gains seats in Congress -Was more common in the 20th Century -Has been a decline in recent years -Dems gained seats when Obama was elected in 2008 In 2016, Trump did not have coattails because everyone assumed Hillary would win and the Dems would win more seats than they did | 16 |
