Essay On Escacumbency In The United States

This written report is appertaining to the book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, written by Lee H. Hamilton. This book is published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IL, it was copyrighted in 2004 by the publisher.

In the past century, people continued to express an increasingly discontent view of Congress especially true when one looks back before the Clinton Impeachment debacle As the size of the nation and the number of congressman have grown, the congress has come under attack by both public influences and congressman themselves. Yet looking at one congressman's relationship with his or her constituents, it would be hard to believe that this is the branch of government that has come under suspect. In "If Ralph Nader says congress is 'The broken branch,' how come we love our congressman so much?" author Richard F. Fenno, Jr., provides insight into this view and why, through congress coming under fire, constituents still feel positively about

Recently, many political scientists have argued over whether today’s Congress is centralizing or decentralizing. Centralization allows Congress to act quickly and decisively, but at the expense of the members of Congress and their constituents, while decentralization protects and enhances the interests of individual members and their constituents, but at the expense of its ability to act quickly and decisively. At its birth, Congress was created as a decentralized body, and although it has fluctuated over the years, the Constitution, congressional incentive for reelection, the committee system, and weak central leadership has certainly maintained such a decentralized institution.

Throughout the book Congress: The Electoral Connection there is a common theme that the author, David Mayhew, brings to our attention. He argues that the members of Congress have one exclusive goal, to get reelected; because of this goal, it effects their behavior and actions during their time in office. There are four reasons that Mayhew puts an emphasis on the goal of reelection, those being political reality, the lack of focus on parties but rather on individuals, the constant struggle for power and, in his opinion, most importantly it establishes an accountability relationship with an electorate. As the book progresses Mayhew provides an abundance of evidence as to why he believes this is the primary goal of the members of Congress.

A common belief across the United states is that congress is not performing as well as they could, or should, be. One solution that citizens often come to, is implement term limits for Congress. Unlike many political debates, this one cannot be clearly divided between republican and democratic viewpoints. Term limits would be a clear message to congress saying, ‘this is the amount of time you have to fix the problems facing this country, and if you cannot do that, we will replace you someone who can’. Though no longer on the federal political agenda, the desire for congressional term limits has steadily grown over time for many reasons. Among these lie the desires to push career politicians out of office, to build trust with the American people, and preventing any sort of greed that might occur in a longstanding politician.

The puzzles, processes and actions of Congress say a lot about America 's representative democracy

Congressional members are influenced by their subjective experiences as well as their intellectual and psychological dispositions in dealing with the variability of global politics. Foreign policies, such as declarations of war, are conceived with the intent to defend congressional interests to protect the powers of Congress. Senators and Representatives frequently determine their stance on an issue by determining how it would impact their appointment to higher office, chances for reelection, and improving their influence and legacy. Once Members of Congress have established their interests, the United States Constitution provides the framework of how Congressional interests are conveyed into laws. The lawmaking process, however, may be a tedious

When examining the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States, there are six specific purposes that are laid out. These six purposes consist of forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty. While the Constitution was being written, the United States was struggling to maintain itself as one united country due to the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation; thus the Preamble was established in order to bring a sense of unity and strength to the crumbling country-to-be. In a sense, the Preamble was a success, as the country had in fact unified under one flag and had been able to stabilize themselves. However, when looking at the government of the United States today, compared to back then, it can be seen that many of the traditional values that were a staple to the American way of life have been diminished to the point of nonexistence.

The United States Congress often comes across issues that are met with gridlock. These politicians often face complaints from people within their own workplace or just the average citizen. When they see something that needs to be revised, they must articulate a plan that will not only satisfy their party, but also the people who fall under the plan. These conflicts range from a president’s term limits to even repealing certain amendments. Just because it’s written in the Constitution, doesn’t mean it can’t be revised! Here are some concerns that have been brought up through the recent years.

If someone were to ask you to name one of your congressman, would you be able to? Many American citizens struggle to name a single one of their congressman or congresswoman. History is a very important thing to study because without knowing our history we are more likely to repeat our past. However, knowing our past requires us to know our present. The fate of their country addresses many topics of why the civil war occurred and why it mattered, however, Holt makes it very clear in the preface that his theme and vital point of this book is “what politicians do in elective office matters.” Holt address that when we are uninformed about our government we become wrongfully upset.

In Part II of this portfolio, I selected a research paper from American Government 101 concerning Senator Dan Coats. This document represents a man who has a driving passion in government in regards to representing Indiana Hoosiers in Washington D. C. and serving the nation in various roles. Senators have many important responsibilities; therefore, by providing this research paper, critical readers and viewers may grasp a more comprehensive understanding of a senator’s role in governmental affairs throughout United States and in Indiana. Senator Dan Coats represents political responsibility by exemplifying himself as a strong-minded Indiana Senator set on limiting government, fighting for the rights of constituents, and upholding the sound

A member of Congress is someone who has been elected and appointed to represent a particular constituency and advocate their interest and needs. In a perfect world the representative will listen to the people and speak on their behalf. However, that is further from the truth, only 15% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 75% disapprove. I agree with the disapproval of Congress, the relationship with the legislative branch is extremely negative because the public’s needs are not being met, due to congressmen following a different agenda. David Mayhew, Jammie Carson, Jeffery Jenkins, and Arnold are a few scholars who explain the behavior of Congress and why the public is unhappy with the jobs the representatives are performing. Mayhew argues that members of Congress are single-minded seekers of reelection involved in credit claiming, position taking, and advertisement. In support of Mayhew’s view Carson and Jenkins add four conditions of the electoral connection— ambition, autonomy, responsiveness, and accountability. Lastly Arnold believes members of Congress are not only single-minded seekers of reelection, but they worry about citizens’ preferences, voter backlash, theory components and the opinion of experts v. generalist v. ordinary citizens along with other things. Members of Congress follow a different agenda when making policy rather than focus on their constituents’ needs, therefore is no surprise why a large portion of the public is so

The United States is a flourishing democracy that allows the people to have a lasting influence on members of Congress. According to Alexis de Tocqueville, “Of all political powers, the legislature is the one most ready to obey the wishes of the majority” (Tocqueville, Part II, Chapter 7). Congress, which makes up the legislative branch, is divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate. Elected official of the House and Senate must answer to the people who elect them and support them. The people can include constituents, voters, interest groups, or the population of the United States as a whole. No matter how ‘the people’ is defined, the aforementioned groups have an impact on which members are elected to Congress and how strongly

Nonetheless, citizens influence legislators actions to the extent that legislators decisions reflect in some way citizens preference or potential preferences. Also, Arnold argues that congressmen have to choose between the opinion of experts, generalist, and ordinary citizens, he writes “ ordinary citizens acquire their view of cause and effect more haphazardly, and with little attempt at specialization..more frequently citizens’ views reflect their own life experiences…” (Arnold, 21 & 22) In other words, experts specialize in small aspects of political world, ordinary citizens tend to attain their knowledge through media and talk amongst friends and family as well as life experiences and generalist are in between the experts and ordinary citizens. Legislator then have to choose who they want their policy to benefit, what tends to happen is that experts specialize in something and have the best knowledge but congressmen tend to benefit the ordinary citizen, even if their notions are incorrect, because they put them in office and they are who keep them

The Congress of the 1950s, known as the “textbook Congress”, is quite different than the Congress of the today. Our Author notes six legislative folkways that were noted by political scientist