Types of Influences on a Congressman During a Vote

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.

     In conclusion, there are many factors that influence Congress’s decisions of certain operations throughout history. Some of those factors include the committee system, seniority, and the public opinion. Most of the factors have to do with making sure that there are no corrupt congressmen, or unfit

Congress is a complex lawmaking function that runs the country. In other words is the legislative body of our country made up of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Difficulties that are involved by the representation function have to do with Congressmen wanting to be reelected, opposition between the two parties, and the lobbying that takes place. These three difficulties are what causes the conflict with the lawmaking function of Congress.

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.

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

Falling into the unpopular opinion or passing a controversial bill will hurt their chances of reelection and throw off their career. There are two main jobs that a member of Congress has that relate to policy, they need to express public opinion as well as attend to and handle the needs of their voters and constituents. These two jobs may cloud the opinion of the member of Congress because they will not fight for something that they personally believe in because it is controversial but will the side with a popular bill that their poll person says will benefit them politically. Instead of getting rewarded for achieving something they are rewarded for the position that they

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 composition of the House as a whole is comparatively less important than the degree to which individual House members and Senators reflect the views and characteristics of the people in their individual districts or states. Decisions in Congress are made collectively, but representation occurs primarily at the level of the individual member.

Also, this book failed to portray equal regions in the sense that only one Congress member represented the West coast. I believe if the author took these two suggestions and incorporated them in his book it would have provided a stronger argument in support of his core thesis. Each individual presented has a different view in how they represent their constituents. Consequently, by not representing what the constituents want in Congress can cause distrust in Congress as a whole and not just distrust of the House of Representatives. The one similarity that all five members of the House had in common was the fact that they truly wanted to represent their constituents; however, the obstacle they were faced with was whether or not to vote in favor of what they personally believed or put their beliefs aside and vote in favor of the

Overall the committee experience was very thoughtful as it brings the model senators into an atmosphere that they could represent their senator’s ideologies more freely than in the floor. With Senator Casey, the committees were very thoughtful as not only Casey follow his state ideas but his own also. And an example at that is how Casey debated over the bill of healthcare thinking about the college students or the youth in overall who doesn’t have a parent and that need a healthcare that they can afford or get for free with their income. Not only he was in favor all the time with the democrat's bills but he himself also agree and voted yes for them pass so it could not only beneficiate his state but the United States in general. Furthermore, the impact of the constituency on a senators vote was very strong as not only made the party to reflect their choice but to help and bring a better offer on the bill, in this case, the bill of Human Trafficking in the H.E.L.P committee. As the book state "constituency context is another powerful influence on member's vote choices."(Davison, 264) A great example of what is said already is

This inclination towards pleasing voters leads to a division in congress. The congressmen who wish to be reelected by their people will support arguments that benefit these people. They simply

Congress currently has the lowest approval rating they have ever had, however, the incumbent reelection rates are over 90%. This points to a culture where cooperation and compromise are no longer the prime objective. People expect their congressman to force their issue and not compromise on issues that may be contrary to their beliefs. According to America’s

According to a recent poll that was taken in 2014, there was a list of certain important aspects of the U.S community and government to get the peoples opinion on what citizens thought of them. The list had a wide variety of entities from the U.S military and small businesses to Newspapers. Every participant of the poll was given the list and was asked to choose the ones you had quite a lot and/or great deal of confidence in; however, congress was given the least amount of votes out of every other option on the list with 5% on both great deal and quite a lot. I'm going to give a sense of the perspective on how insignificant those numbers are, because the military was the highest voted with 43% great deal of confidence with 33% great deal of confidence. But there is a good reason for the distrust for congress, because of their bias nature and partisan conduct when it comes to controversial problems, and just overall acting like children.

In my opinion, I feel that constituents have power over congress members because they have the power to vote them in or out of office. On the other hand, I feel that voting constituents have the least amount of influence over congress members, who strive for money contributions in order to, run their political campaigns, compared to donors and PACs.

Still according to the book the basis of sociological representation portrays representative as a delegate who shares the same gender, racial, religious, ethnic or educational culture with the constituents. Hence, one can conclude that Congress is not sociologically representative of the common people. Nevertheless, Both Houses do have a good productive organization support. As the book explains agency representation is a form of representation that is present when the citizens have the ability to appoint and oust congressmen and congresswomen. Our lawmakers were voted in by the citizens and have to make decisions on their behalf and protect their interest as they represent the American People. The framers had in mind for Congress to be very active to the needs of their constituents, frequently congress members got mixed up over acting in the name of the citizens of their district and satisfying the needs of the entire nation. Although, sociologically the agency representation is disproportional, the lawmakers always act with the next election in

As you can see from these examples though this problem is not just unique to Congress. It can also be seen in the "state legislatures of the colonial era, and in the British House of Commons of the sixteenth and twentieth centuries"