Incumbency Advantages

The first proposal, of changing the electoral system for the House of Representatives, would mean that each state is represented in proportion to its population. This entails that states with higher populations will receive more votes because they have more seats in the House. Less populous states may argue against this reform because they will have a disadvantage when it comes to voting on legislation. However, the reform also includes having each state serve as electoral districts. In this case, multi-member districts will be needed—proportional representation will require a larger district magnitude. Having these territorial subdivisions will help create an efficient legislative system because there would be less possibility of manipulating the votes—not as relevant to election results when seats are proportional. Having the votes distributed in this manner may help avoid a deadlock and therefore, allow for a faster process when passing legislation. In addition, minorities will have chance to be represented by possibly gaining a seat in a particular district—a highly populous

Therefore elections every two years in the House mean representatives have to stay in touch to remain electable. Also high rates of incumbency success, typically over 90% in the House and 80% in the Senate, suggests a high level of voter satisfaction with the members of congress themselves. Therefore if the people felt out of touch with the members of congress that represent them they would simple not vote for them in the following election. Therefore high incumbency rates displays the satisfaction with the members of congress suggesting that they are in touch with the people.

Incumbency advantage is the advantage of someone who is already in office because of their staff support, and being seen in office already. This advantage gives these Congress officials the chance to expand or broaden their voter pool by going after populations that typically would not vote for them. Incumbents also find it a lot easier to fundraise funds for their campaign compared to a newly running official.

The majority party has many advantages when it comes to lawmaking, not including the numerical advantage the majority party has in-floor voting. One advantage the majority party has, is they control the House Rules Committee. The House Rules Committee has significant power throughout the legislation process. They determine which bills will be brought to the floor of the House for consideration and whether amendments will be allowed on a bill when it is debated by the entire House. For example, the House Rules Committee could make a decision to immediately put a bill on the House schedule and decide that the bill will not have any debate time. Another advantage the majority party has is they choose the speaker of the house.For instance, the Speaker of the House appoints select committees and refers bills to committees, and as the presiding officer they decide the order in which business is conducted throughout the day. In addition, to these advantages is the fact that the majority party holds majority on each committee.This means the majority party holds a majority of seats on standing committees, which in turn makes passing the majority parties legislation that much easier.

In order to combat gerrymandering, it is important to understand how and why a district is

The political system of America is very different from other developed and developing democracies. Most notable is the increased power bestowed on the upper house of the parliament, the extensive power held by the Supreme Court and the dominance demonstrated by only two major parties. In the United States, third parties have the least influence on the world’s most developed democracy’s political structure. In this democracy, people are under the US Constitution of the governmental system as well as state government and other units of local government. Local government entails counties, districts and municipalities. The evolution of the American political party system has come a long way; with Hamilton and Jefferson being regarded as the founder fathers of the modern party system. These were heads of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist groups in the 18th century of American politics. Ever since, the country has maintained a party system that has two main parties that are relatively stable. These are Democrats and Republicans and have remained in contest for election every time since the 1860 presidential elections. Initially, the Republican Party was the dominant party but the Democrats later gained dominance. However, the two parties became closely competitive and neither of them has been notably dominant since the 1970s (O'Connor & Sabato, n.d).

In order for legislators to draw districts there has to be: at least 650,000 people in a district, and district borders must be continuous. Districts can be drawn to favor a certain group of minorities, but it can not suppress minorities. Parties draw district lines for the benefit at the expense of proportionality and fair representation. District lines are also used to minimize the influence of minority voters by disportionality combining them with single districts. In Missouri, Republicans and Democrats are disportionately put in districts together, then when it comes time for voting a certain party has more of an advantage than the other. Gerrymandering is also used to assists with re-election for representatives. When it comes time for voting for representatives, a citizen that is new to a district and does not know the recent representative of their district, their vote for another candidate can be overridden by other candidates that voted for the same representative. In this case, name recognition helps representative have a better chance at getting

“ 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.

Daniel Hoover Professor Jack Citron/ Joseph Warren Political Science 1 September 22nd, 2015 The Constitution is not a Democratic Document The U.S. Constitution revolutionized the American political system, and shaped world history by inspiring other states to imitate its protection of civil liberties in the later adopted Bill of Rights, checks and balances between branches within the federal government, and guarantees to state governments. For the purpose of this paper, it is essential to analyze the Constitution in its early form because it established the conditions from which our federal republic has evolved. In addition, the Constitution of December 15th, 1791, the date when the promised Bill of Rights was added, best reflects the intentions

There are obvious flaws in the American political system. However, gerrymandering, which has been undermining American democracy since the nation’s birth, has remained widely unknown. Gerrymandering, which occurs across the United States, is used by Democrats and Republicans to maximize the number of congressional seats they capture. Every ten years, the government conducts a census. Following the census, state legislatures redraw congressional districts to reflect population changes. However, state legislatures are often controlled by a single political party that unfairly redraws congressional districts in order to win more seats in the House of Representatives (Ingraham). Politicians concentrate the voting strength of the opposition

Congressional elections occur every two years and it is when members if the House of Representatives and Senate are elected. An incumbent is when a congressman is up for re-election but is currently still holding office. We have long known that US incumbents enjoy profound electoral advantages in congressional elections. However contrary to speculation some evidence shows that they are on an equal playing field with contesters who are not incumbents.

Gerrymandering is an incredibly controversial topic in American politics today and is a relevant issue to many U.S. Citizens. The first thing to understand is the difference between reapportionment and redistricting. Reapportionment occurs every ten years and describes the process by which the number of states’ representatives are re-evaluated. Additionally, redistricting, occurring the year after reapportionment, is the process by which the voting districts in each of the states are realigned. The second thing to understand is the intricate workings of how politicians of the majority party dilute the opposing party’s votes.

In order to correct “factious spirits that have tainted our public administrations”(Madison, 72), the government must control the effects of factions. He argues, “as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success... will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters (Madison, 77).” With this statement by creating an extended republic with more representatives, the tyranny of a majority could be avoided with the addition of more qualified, democratically-elected representatives. As a result, Madison felt that creating an extended republic with more representatives with more people voting would quell the effects of

Redistricting is an extremely important part of U.S. politics, because it is necessary to change the districts due to population shifts and population growth. “Keeping the Republic”, defines redistricting as the process of dividing states into legislative districts. It takes place after each census as a way to ensure that each voter has an equal say. Sometimes it is necessary for one state to gain districts while others may lose a district. The redistricting process is necessary, nevertheless gerrymandering is hurting American Politics.

Over the past three decades, the distance between parties has continued to grow steadily. As their distances increase it has become harder for presidents to receive votes from both parties.