Governmental Corruption In The United States

When looking how effectively a country represents its citizens, it is important to take into account the manner in which they are represented. The two main types of representation are descriptive and agency representation. Descriptive representation is the concept that those who represent the American people should not only have the same political interest, but should also mirror the demographic makeup of the people. Agency representation, which is what the United States congress looks like, is when the representation does not reflect the demographic, but they speak for their constituents’ interests in congress. The constituents are able to hold the representatives accountable and can choose not to elect them in the next term, so the representatives

Chapter 12 Journal: Congress 1. How Congress Represents the American People The United States Congress is more than likely the most significant representative institution in the United States government. Each member of Congress has a primary obligation to the district, to his or her constituency. Though Congress is divided into two parts, called the House of Representatives and the Senate, they both play different roles in the legislature process. Senate is more deliberative and the House is the more centralized and organized. Congress is supposed to represent the American people but they will not always make the “right” decisions, according to some individuals. Obviously it is impossible to please everybody, but surely the laws that are being passed are because Congress views some sort of usefulness from it. There are two different types of representation that was spoken about in the chapter including sociological and agency representation. Sociological is based off of the idea that if two individuals have similar background, character, interests, and perspectives, then they can correctly represent others’ views. Agency is when a representative is held accountable to a constituency for when that constituency is represented poorly. The constituents have the power to hire and fire their representatives.

The Progress movement or as many refer to as the Progressive era, was a time frame where Americans joined in varying groups to advocate reform across the United States. To elaborate, Progressives believed in widespread change for child labor, industrialization, government, racial reform, and women’s rights. Countless stories of corruption in these areas were brought to light in the Progressive era mostly due to the published writings of Muckrakers. Muckrakers, were journalists who wrote for popular magazines that attempted to expose corrupt political activities from their investigative journalism. Furthermore, I will discuss and compare these groups and their attempts for changes in the rights of child labor, women, acknowledgment of corrupt government practices, racial relations, and industrialization reform.

Death of Reconstruction The 100th year anniversary of The Declaration of Independence is here and the Nation is as united as it is equal. None. Although football games continue like Princeton vs. Rutgers the United states is in shambles. Following the war between the states a plan to reconstruct was put into place. It was proficient, effective, and controversial for many years. However, after the long Civil War and years spent to rebuild the Nation, the North Ultimately killed reconstruction because of government corruption, the focus change in North, and widespread racism throughout the nation.

It is well known that the ancient civilizations of the world shape the many different cultures in the present day. From religion to food and government, Ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia, we would not be who we are today without the ancient ways that started it from the beginning. Though there

Therefore, people end up free riding and result in an unequal representation that can be seen clearly in Congress where more than 82% of House members and 96% of Senators are white. These statistics make a difference in the way the Congress functions as a representative body. In fact, the

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”, said the Irish political philosopher, Edmund Burke. Through time, the same question has popped up in the American minds: are representatives actually elected to represent us and our best interests, or on the contrary, to perform according to their concerns? In his “Letter to the Electors of Bristol”, Burke argues several controversial points; as an Irish vying for the American territories to continue with virtual representation, why would he also defend their rights as existing colonies? Members of congress (senators as well as representatives of the house) are chosen through a thoughtful process, by the legislature of the United States, or by the Constituency itself. Finally, if these are to break rules or not comply with their job duties, they may be expelled from Congress.

Corruptions Throughout Young America The balance of function in the United States were very conflicted during the Civil War time period. State governments wouldn’t agree with the national governments and vice versa. The Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches also were corrupted for a while with presidents allowing their friends become officials and also with the corrupt banking going on in the Jackson era.

Democratic theory supposes that there is at least some kind of association between the votes taken by members of Congress and the political preferences of who they are representing. Based on each Congress member’s constituency, elected officials can make decisions by representing their constituency’s political preferences. However, most representatives of a few different types are not as responsive, or are not even responsive at all, to certain groups of people due to reasons such as what income level those groups are. This level of responsiveness is unfair and inappropriate for having an accurate representation of what a constituency really needs. Elected officials need to acknowledge all citizens to gain an accurate idea of certain group’s

What is our safeguard against corruption performed by federal officeholders? It is impeachment. Impeachment is the Constitutional power given to the House of Representatives to remove a federal officeholder from office. “Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution says, ‘The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors’." (Longley). The power of impeachment has historical significance as only four times in our history has Congress had serious discussions of impeachment. Due to the requirement of a ruling vote from the House of Representatives and the Senate, there are issues and complications

I believe the Constitution is too vague. The dilemma lies in the details or lack of details. If the objective is free speech, it is much easier to just simply say free speech then to try and express every single instance where free speech is and is not allowed. While vagueness does allow for flexibility, it also allows some corruption, but corruption only comes from those who abuse the system. One example of corruption is in December 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union reported what they believed was one of the worst abuses of the Constitution since 9/11, the National Security Agency tapped into telephone calls of American citizens without a warrant, which violates the Fourth Amendment.

The history of the United States is one of mixed virtue. We have a republican form of government in which congressmen are directly elected by the people and the president is indirectly elected by the people. We also have a higher standard of living than many nations. But this does not make our history a cleanly pristine one considering the institution of slavery, a lack of civil rights for minorities, and the denial of women’s suffrage, that were once a part of this nation’s existence.

Political corruption in the United States is present an at least one of the three branches of government in all fifty states but is most common in the Legislative branch. Ending political corruption is nearly impossible because public officials will always find a loophole in the existing laws but reducing

In “Political Representation,” Shapiro et al. (2009) say that “political representation lies at the core of modern politics.” Representation is usually linked to the concept of democracy (Shapiro et al. 2009). The concept of representation is explicitly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution (U.S. Const. art. I, § 1, 2). However,

Representative government is grounded in the Constitution. The Constitution was created to protect citizens from factious groups through the establishment of an extended republic intended to “diminish the chances that any one faction will gain majority” (Kamark & Nye 29). However, it is still possible that citizens, as the majority, will tyrannize each other (25).