Essay On Congressional Representation

In agency representation the constituents give the politicians the ability to make decisions on their behalf when they don’t know the issue, the constituents expect them to work in their best interest. An issue that has recently been in the news is President Obama’s efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Since the issue has not attracted the attention of a lot of people it is up to congress to vote in the public’s best interest. Yet, according to New York Times, congress has been blocking the president’s efforts to shut the prison down. The United States spends $2.5 million per detainee in Guantanamo and it currently holds 532 detainees. Acting as agencies on the behalf of the American people, Congress should work with President Obama because the money that the United States could save will be spent on issues that directly affect the public. This raises the question of how well does congress represent its

“ Congress: The Electoral Connection”, the article is written by David R. Mayhew. Mayhew represents his view about Congressmen activities. These politicians discuss certain issues going on within the country and to emphasize people to focus on their listed issues and get attention of public in order to take position in House.

In her book, Pitkin views representation in four partial views in order to get a better understanding of the overall term. “Acting for” differs from the other views in that it is focused on the substance of representing. Pitkin also brings up the “Mandate-Independence Controversy” which describes the conflict of how representatives should act. The mandate view of representation is where the representative’s choices reflect the views of the represented; he is bound by the instructions from them. Independence view gives the representative more freedom as long as it’s still what is best for the constituents. Both these views offer ways of viewing how a representative should behave. This principle is demonstrated in a sorority executive council. There are different council positions that demonstrate different strategies used to represent the sorority. There is no clear answer to how much freedom a representative should have when acting for the represented. However, the mandate-independence view and Pitkin’s analogies offers a way of viewing this question. Pitkin’s five analogies for explaining substantive representation will be discussed to further explain this concept: actor, trustee, substitute, ambassador, and specialist. Each analogy has its strengths in defining representation and its shortcomings.

Another way members of Congress represent their constituents is by taking the role of the

By decision making by representatives of the people, rather than direct decision making by the people themselves. These elite representatives would be expected to use their prudence and wisdom to make decisions based on what was in the best interests of the masses. (pg. 7)

Exam 2 Congress is always busy whether it is passing new bills into law or simply coming up with ideas of new laws. This is where Congressional Delegation of Authority comes into place taking some of the workload off Congress. The first subcategory is called Congressional Delegation of Authority, which are lawmaking bodies that have limited power given by Congress. The Congressional Delegation of Authority consists of four parts.

This model suggests that constituents give their authority to representatives and entrust them to work on policy to the best of their ability. This model tends to facilitate the dialogue that is necessary to avoid problems with radicalized and hyper-polarized politics. Representatives aren’t just supposed to go to Washington to talk past one another. Instead, this model generally allows for compromise to be met. Personally, some of my favorite Congressmen adopt the trustee model of representation, which allows them to have a back and forth with not only their constituencies but the nation as a whole. It shows that one of the roots of the big sort is the political mindset that voters have on how representatives should

The previous passage proves that the constitution’s ideal representative that holds some sort of power and status in government need to be educated and wealthy. To sum it up, those who are already in congress are those who decide who’ll be apart of government, and make decisions that will affect our country. This will further create a division amongst classes and tension between the upper and middle class will diverge from one another.

It’s been argued ever since the constitution was made how in touch the congress members where with the people who elect them and this argument still goes on today. With the 425 members of the House each has a district which averages nearly 650,000 people, this is a vast number with many arguing that there is little chance that congress can be in touch with the people when they have to represent such vast numbers. However, the other side of the argument displays evidence that in fact the members of congress are able to stay in touch and represent the people who elect them.

Representation of people groups In order for Congress to do its job, it must understand the people and their needs. They only way for Congress to gain this knowledge is to have its members obtain knowledge about the people. What better way to do this than have Congress made up of these people? Congress does not reflect this line of thinking though.

However, the extent to which this model is still democratic can be questioned. On the contrary, the delegate model believes that a representative should faithfully convey view of constituents. This form of representation can be said to better support democracy as it uses the classical concept of democracy: popular sovereignty, the principle that there is no higher authority than the will of the people (). Democracy is where every single person has a say in the affairs of a country. If only the representative’s judgment is voiced, is it still considered to be democratic?

The article Rethinking Representation, written by Jane Mansbridge, explains how there are three different forms of representation apart from the traditional idea of “promissory” representation. Promissory representation is the traditional model of representation. It focuses on the idea that during a representative’s campaign they make promises to their constituents. During the representative’s time in office, these promises are either kept or not fulfilled. As Mansbridge notes, within the last 20 years there has been three new forms of representation, they are anticipatory, gyroscopic, and surrogate representation.

The Power and Significance of Congress Firstly it is important to look at the power and significance of congress as a legislative body. This includes the creation of law, and the scrutiny of the executive. Because the US federal system is ruled by 'separation of powers', it is important that the legislative - congress - acts as a good check and restraint on the executive - the president.

Throughout history, there have been many factors that seem to have influenced the operations of Congress. Some of these factors have been the committee system, seniority, and political parties. These are only a few of the factors that actually have an influence on Congress’s decisions of certain operations.

In this module we have study modifications to the way Congress and the President do business. The Constitution lists specific duties for Congress to attend to; it is a little vaguer when assigning duties to the President. It is up to both of these institutions to best determine how to accomplish these duties. The major theme of this module is change, the addition of offices under the President and the modifications to the power distribution within the Congress to help better and sometimes hinder these institutions in accomplishing their duties.