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American Government 4/e Thomas E. Patterson | |||||
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American Government 4/e Thomas E. Patterson | |||||
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CHAPTER OUTLINE
Introduction
Speaker Foley’s defeat in 1994: shake-up of Congress
The chapter’s focus: nature and relationship of congressional election and organization
The chapter’s main points:
Congressional elections have strong local orientation, favor incumbents
Organization and leadership of Congress provided by parties
Work of Congress done by committees, subcommittees, chairs
Congress as a Career: Election to Congress
History of service in Congress
Before 1900: one-third to one-half of seats turned over each election
Most left voluntarily: travel slow and arduous
National government not power center; states were
Modern era: most members are professional politicians
Good pay (about $135,000); prestige; extended tenure wanted
House has high incumbency reelection rates (90+ percent)
Senate less secure; range 55 percent to 97 percent, average 80 percent
1990s: incumbency success down
Many (one-eighth) choose not to run again
Higher number (nearly one-tenth) defeated
Still, incumbents have the edge, have high margins of victory
Using Incumbency to Stay in Congress
Reelection is high priority for members
Need reelection in order to pursue other policy goals
Members strive for "electoral mastery"
Define: strong electoral support, so have time for other goals
Get by safe constituency, or use advantages of office
Pork, Favors, and Publicity
Pork is special projects for particular locale
Service strategy–use staff to help constituents with government
Staff: House averages twenty; Senate forty; plus district office space
Publicity–newsletters, free broadcast facilities, home visits
Franking privilege allows free mailings to constituents
Campaign Spending (and incumbent advantages)
High cost of campaigning, due to TV ads and polling
Incumbents have advantage in Washington fundraising
Direct mail using constituent service lists
Party campaign committees
Political action committees (PACs) favor incumbents
Challenger must spend heavily to have chance; most do not
Senators raise big "war chest" to discourage strong challengers
Open-seat elections are most competitive and expensive
The Pitfalls of Incumbency
Troublesome Issues–e.g., 1992—94, with high turnover
Personal Misconduct–scandals and ethical questions
Midterm Elections–president’s party loses seats
Not based on degree of presidential popularity
Instead, based on much higher turnout in presidential elections
Midterm election turnout is lower and more partisan, hurting incumbents
who had earlier won marginal seats
Strong Challengers–especially for attractive Senate seats
Lots of wealthy candidates willing to challenge senators
In House seats, usually inexperienced candidates as challengers
Democratic theory, public opinion, and incumbent advantages
Redistricting–House districts redrawn every ten years after census (reapportionment)
New districts sometimes hurt incumbents
Safe Incumbency and Representation
Despite pitfalls, incumbents enjoy clear advantages in most races
Who Are the Winners in Congressional Elections?
Average member of Congress very different from average American
Occupation: 90 percent are lawyers, other professionals
Education: two-thirds have graduate/professional school
Minorities and women are about 10 percent each; trend is up
With safe incumbency, difficult for women and minorities to challenge
Congressional Leadership
Introduction–connection between elections and way Congress works
Members with independent political base will act independently
Top leaders cannot demand the loyalty of members, unlike Europe
Inherent tension between need for leadership at top and members’ need to exercise power for constituents
Result: power is widely dispersed in Congress
Party Leadership in Congress–chosen by party caucus in each chamber
The House Leadership: Speaker, majority/minority leader, and whip
Speaker is called second most powerful official in Washington
Power to decide who will speak and when in floor debate
Chooses chair and majority party members of Rules Committee
Assigns bills to committees; sets time limits on bill reporting
Power from party position: chairs Steering Committee;
offers rewards ( support for bills, committee assignments)
Majority leader, elected by majority caucus, is floor leader
Majority whip–solicits votes, informs about scheduled votes
Minority leader and whip: duties similar to majority leadership
The Senate Leadership
Majority leader has party and policy roles similar to Speaker
Vice president is presiding officer, but this is limited role
President pro tempore is honorary position with limited power
Unlimited debate tradition, small size, equality tradition limit powers of
leadership to persuasion
Other leadership posts similar to House, but not as strong
Committee Chairpersons: The Seniority Principle
Powers of the committee chairs
Chosen by majority party, they usually have most seniority
Seniority was absolute until 1970s and still largely followed
Advantages of seniority:
Reduces power struggles over chair selection
Provides experienced, knowledgeable leadership
Rewards years of committee service and hard work
Subcommittees have their own chairs
Oligarchy or Democracy: Which Principle Should Govern?
House Republicans in 1995 reversed many 1970s reforms
Changes to give committee chairs more power over committees
Chair with appoint staff and select subcommittee chairs
Reforms of 1970s designed to weaken chair’s control
Wanted to increase power of majority party members
Wanted to increase independence of subcommittees
Based on idea of more democracy and dispersing power
Also served reelection and power needs of individual members
More internal democracy can mean less external democracy
To respond to majority national sentiment, House must be able to act as a
majoritarian institution
This means weakening separate agendas of committee leaders
Committee leaders will be more closely tied to top leadership
Term limits imposed on Speaker and chairs
Different reforms repeated over time, show different concepts of Congress: both
national concerns and constituency interests
Congress is very different from European parliaments, where power is concentrated at the top
Congress has dispersed leadership, but some provision for power at top
The Committee System
Introduction: Standing committees: permanent committees responsible for a policy area
House has nineteen, averages 35 to 40 members; Senate has sixteen, half House size
Authority to draft, rewrite legislation, and to recommend passage or defeat of legislation
Each has staff (1,300 House, 1,000 Senate) for legislative assistance
Other committees–three types
Select: temporary for specific task
Joint: members from both houses, to advise or coordinate
Conference: temporary, work out House and Senate bill differences
Committees allow Congress to divide work, but doing so fragments Congress
Committee Power
Most floor votes to confirm or modify committee decisions
About 90 percent of committee pass recommendations approved on the floor
Most bills are killed by committee (only 10 percent reach the floor)
Subcommittees do detailed legislative work, especially in the House
Committee success is based on anticipating probable response of rest of Congress, not solely on wishes of committee members
Committee Jurisdiction
Legislative Reorganization Act (1946) requires bills be sent to the committee with
"jurisdiction" (authority over the policy area); leaders have some discretion when
jurisdictions overlap
Subcommittees also have secure policy jurisdictions within committees
So, small number of members of a subcommittee have the major voice in a policy area
Committee Membership
Majority party holds majority of seats on committees and subcommittees
Each house limits number of assignments for individual member
Committee must have vacancies (caused by electoral change) before new members can be appointed
Biggest change comes when a party loses control of the chamber
Parties in each house have special committees to make assignments
Members request assignment to committees that will help their
constituencies and reelection bids
Members also request assignment to most important committees
Subcommittee assignments made by committee party members
Institutional Support for the Work of Congress
As Congress allowed more staff and authority for the president, need for congressional staff grew
Four agencies compose legislative bureaucracy:
General Accounting Office–largest; oversees spending, evaluates programs
Congressional Research Service–oldest; nonpartisan research agency
Congressional Budget Office–newest; counter to president’s OMB
Pros of agencies: They strengthen ability to act and respond to presidential proposals
Cons of agencies: They fragment Congress; provide self-serving information to members
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