Evaluating Congressional Effectiveness

The word effectiveness means that a product has the capability of producing the desired result. Effectiveness of Parliament is based around representation, scrutiny, its accountability, legislation and its quality and protection of rights. If they were able to do these to a high standard then they would be classed as being effective.

Evaluate the claim that the Senate is far more powerful than the House of Representatives

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.

Is congress a dysfunctional institution? Columnist Ezra Klein contends that institutional deadlock and partisan rancor have paralyzed congress, causing it to lose power to the president and the bureaucracy. Former Massachusetts Senator Mo Cowan describes he has to come view the work of congress along with fellow members after fulfilling the remainder of John Kerry’s term upon the nomination of Governor Deval Patrick.

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.

However , Lee H. hamilton differs and believes congress isn’t dysfunctional and is objected to,

Congress is not doing their job, and the Americans of United States are disapproving on how Congress is proceeding to do their duties. Theoretically, this is not really a new issue in Congress; they have had multiple fights and delays on bills throughout the years. An example would be the House of Representatives proposing fewer bills throughout this past decade. This is one of many issues that Congress had been doing behind the people of United States of America. While Congress members are slacking to do anything productive, we the “Americans” are slipping this situation right by our eyes. Congress needs to be situated and organized; and we the people, cannot afford any slackers in the Legislative Branch.

First, congress salaries are very heavily bashed on by the public. An average congress member attains a salary just shy of $100,000. Many members of congress start off making roughly $80,000-$90,000 annually. Therefore, an abundance of people argue that their salary is too high. Although they have a decent salary to sit on, they aren’t overly wealthy. In contrast, members may work their way up in power, yet don’t generate much of a raise other than a few thousand annually. Back when the constitution was being formed, many of our nation’s top builders predicted a president leading the USA. Granted the president description was extremely vague, we soon realized how powerful presidency and high powers truly are. After several presidencies and wars, among other awry events, we quickly discovered the roles and objectives of these political leaders. Furthermore, the role of presidency has been altered greatly over the course of time. The separation of power ultimately led to the creation of a two-party system. Lastly, the issue of re-election arises. Re-election rates have generated a fair amount of complaints among American’s. The idea of limiting terms for congress members has become a common thought. If this followed through, it may generate mixed feelings for our country. Everybody has different stances on our nation’s higher powers, but perception is critical, depending on the

In 1867, congress overturned president Jackson’s vetoed bills and formed three significant laws known as Congressional reconstruction: the Command of the Army Act, the Military Reconstruction Act, and the Tenure of Office Act. The Military Reconstruction Act used federal troops to reorganize governments in the south and to enforce civil rights for blacks. It also abolished all new governments within the rebel states under president Jackson’s reconstruction policies. Congress regained military control of ten out of the eleven previous rebel states. The Military Reconstruction Act ordered each state to create a new constitution that guaranteed the right for all men to vote; no matter of race, social status or if they owned property.

Is our congress bad? Many political leaders have come and gone, they all have different ideology and good interest of this country at heart. Congress is a political system which is mandate to maintain and protect the fundamental freedom and the right of the people. The political candidates in congress are often characterized by disagreeing parties on general policies beliefs and political affiliations. Due to some of this policies beliefs, congress appears at loggerheads with one another and public confidence in the ability of congress to solve important issues has waned because of policy and ideology, election victory, and

Hook: There is modern day slavery in the United States, which is known as Human Trafficking. The most common form of human trafficking is prostitution. Mostly young girls and women. Then there are the agricultural workers, domestic workers, childcare providers, construction workers, day laborers and restaurant workers that have been transported to our country or are already living in the United States. Many of these people that have passports or any other type of identity have them taken away from them so they cannot prove their identity to authorities.

Gridlock refers to a point in which there is no progress in the debates, motions or bills being passed in parliament simply because the members of congress cannot agree to a decision (Binder, 2003, p.4). The congress has two houses that are usually in conflict with each other. They are the Senate and the House of Representatives. Within the congress, there are also parties that are influential in the passing of motions and bills. Parliamentary parties refer to the differences among the members of congress as defined by the political party with which they are affiliated. Gridlock in congress is contributed by two issues; the fact that there are two different parties competing to outshine each

“Congress” was established in response to the weakness of the Government that the “Articles of the Confederation” had exposed and also as a compromise between the larger and smaller states. The representatives of the larger States wanted to lord it over the smaller states but “The Framers of the Constitution wanted to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a few”. (K Janda, Berry, Goldman, Shildkraut, Hula pg. 268) So, in an effort to please everyone the great compromise was made which was an agreement with the delegates to establish two chambers in Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate would have two senators from each state and the House of Representatives would have representatives from each state based on the population in the state. This decision settled the argument that had previously caused problems between the states and it was agreed upon by everyone. However, Congress did not continue to be the solution that it was supposed to be and very often there was strife between the two parties which has continued to this day with the Democrats and the Republicans.

Well, many things were disagreed regarding the division of separation powers. The fear of one individual or a group talking over and having all control was mentioned, people didn't went to go through the same thing they had when the European government was about to change. The disagreement and compromises finalizing the constitution were representation, slavery, and elections. There was also the compromise on executive elections some said it should be a popular vote and some argued that population could not trust big decision.

Ernest House and Kenneth Howe’s Deliberative Democratic Evaluation (DDE) approach best reflects the principles of the transformative paradigm and the social justice branch. In order to address inequalities, specifically in terms of class and minority status, House and Howe incorporated democratic ideals into their evaluation approach in order to advance and promote social justice. This aligns very closely to the axiology, ontology, and epistemology of the transformative branch. The first of the three guiding principles of DDE is inclusion. The DDE approach makes an intentional effort to include and address the interest of all stakeholders, specifically stakeholders who might normally be marginalized due to lack of power or resources. The second principle, dialogue, is used to find, through broad dialogue with relevant and diverse stakeholders, issues important to stakeholders. Dialogue provides a voice to stakeholders who traditionally would be voiceless in the evaluation process and perhaps voiceless in the democratic process. Deliberation stands as the third principle of DDE (although the importance of deliberation can be inferred from its presence in the title of House and Howe’s approach). With deliberation, the evaluator must act as a facilitator and leader to insure that all views are discussed reasonably and logically before conclusions are drawn.