People Think Representatives Should Respond : Their District Or The Country

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

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.

The behavior of voters has great importance to politics as the people decide mainly who wins. The study of the behavior of the electorate has increased as politicians seek to appeal to the voters and find ways to gain followers and most importantly votes. The two articles Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory and The Responsible Electorate discuss the behavior of voters in the United States, and the importance of the electorate.

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

The state legislature of Florida is partisan whereby legislators are allied mostly to the democratic and republic parties or other smaller ones. A bill has to go through both chambers before it becomes law and it can then be forwarded to the governor for consideration. If the governor chooses to veto the bill, his decision can only be overturned by a 2/3 majority. In Nebraska, only 25 members of the Senate need to vote in favor of a bill for it to become law while 30 votes against can filibuster or veto a bill (Miewald 74). To override a governor’s veto in Nebraska, 33 members of the legislation need to vote in favor. In addition to being unicameral, the Nebraska legislature is the only non-partisan legislative body in the United States of America (Miewald and Longo 76). The Nebraska state Legislature is unique in that there are no formal party alignments but coalitions are formed based on a legislator's philosophy of the government, the constituency they represent and the geographical area they come

The inter workings of Congress have been studied extensively by Richard Fenno and David R. Mayhew. Mayhew’s study of Congress took place in Washington, while Richard Fenno conducted his research by following politicians within their congressional district. Mayhew attributes three primary goals to congressmen- getting reelected, achieving influence within Congress and making “good Policy”. Fenno also attributes three basic goals, having influence inside the House than other congressmen. Second, helping their constituents and thereby insuring their reelection, and lastly helping make good policy. The purpose of this paper is to research a member of Congress and to make a direct connection between his activity in Washington and his home district. The paper will answer whether the congressmen is a delegate or trustee. Are the actions a pursuit for reelection? Are the committee assignments a path for movement within the House or outside? What legislation has he/she sponsored or co-sponsored and does it directly reflect his/her districts political view. And finally, do major industries and interest groups within his/she district affect the way he/she votes.

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

Members of Congress are voted to office by their electorate as their representatives at the congress level of democracy. In their capacity, they may decide to exercise their powers by the will of the people or according to their personal judgment. When the members of Congress opt to be the people’s delegate, their actions in the House and other congressional engagements are a reflection of the will of their district. As such, the delegate representative does not have or exercise the autonomy to represent and decide for their district. Instead, a strenuous consultation process is required to keep the people in control of all relevant decisions.

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.

The article “The Fourth Branch of Government”, Thomas Helgerman discusses how direct democracy plays an important role in state governments. He presents the information in the form of an essay in which he explains his argument and analysis as a student of math and economics as well as a member a parliamentary debate team. The essay will review Helgerman’s analysis and arguments of direct democracy and how it leads to irresponsible legislation that is not subject to inspection of the US political process. In the article, Helgerman explains how direct democracy came to be used in state government and used the state of California as an example.

As political scientists, we are aiming to dive deeper into understanding political behavior and the circumstances that sound it. Specifically whether political party affiliation, committee involvement, and donor contribution have a deep-rooted impact on political behavior within foreign policy of the representatives from New York, North Dakota, and Texas on H.R. 2393: Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015.

Gaurav Sharma Professor Sherry Sharifian Texas Government 2306 SLO#3 April 24, 2017 Local Control in Texas In Texas, there are very many functional Interest groups and lobbyists that operate effectively influencing the policy-making processes. The Interest groups and lobbyists are in close association with policy-makers whereby they act as negotiators of democracy to the citizens who cannot reach the legislatures (Texas Vox: 1). This has impacted local control in Texas greatly. However, the nature of laws that have been passed recently in Texas shows that the policy-makers are diverging from interest from the citizens and favoring individual groups and companies. The following essay will address the impact depicted by Interest groups and lobbyists

Nevertheless, I intend to examine literature concerning legislatures to figure out what is occurring in the unicameral that is causing the non-partisanship to erode. I believe that Nebraska is a unique state in the way that its government operates and therefore an interesting case to study. I think that there are a couple of important factors like term limits and the influence of interest groups that might be at play and are contributing to the partisanship being observed within the unicameral. First, I will examine the literature and discuss possible variables that affect non-partisanship.

The representative looks within, as a basis for action and principles derived from the representative’s own background. Voters often select representatives based on three types of characteristics; the representative has similar policy preferences, they are honest and principled, and the representative is sufficiently skilled. Since the voter selects the representative based on observable characteristics, the voters can affect the political outcomes. Voters affect political outcomes by selecting a representative whose behavior is to some degree predictable based on their observable characteristics. The power relationship in a gyroscopic representation is not between the voter and the representative, but rather the voter has power over the

The United States of America is one of the oldest contemporary democracies, is currently the second largest democracy, and is ranked the 16th best democracy in the world (Campbell et. Al, 2014). Yet there is a legitimate question over whether or not the United States can still truly be considered a democracy, with some studies even suggesting it has begun to resemble an oligarchy (Chumley, 2014). In this essay, I will use Dahl’s criteria of voting equality and effective participation to determine whether or not the United States are truly a democracy.