1 / 28

February 7, 2005

February 7, 2005. Who’s here? Matthews What is representation? Congress as an institution for Representation. Who’s Here?. Meredith Fascett Patrick Purcell Rebekah Rodriguez Lynn Robert Schwartz Rosemary Marotta Ryan Raffaelli Sara Dawes Scott Gallaway Seth Pendleton Shawn Murphy

ulf
Download Presentation

February 7, 2005

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. February 7, 2005 • Who’s here? • Matthews • What is representation? • Congress as an institution for Representation

  2. Who’s Here? Meredith Fascett Patrick Purcell Rebekah Rodriguez Lynn Robert Schwartz Rosemary Marotta Ryan Raffaelli Sara Dawes Scott Gallaway Seth Pendleton Shawn Murphy Shermon Williams Stephen Aldridge Tim Heis Tony Pipa Trenton Hamilton Will Fitzgerald Yasmina Vinci Zeb Portanova Jeremy Neuner John A. Atilano II John Cadoux Joyce Hayes Jules Delaune Justin Oliver Kara Stein Kassia Yanosek Kate Ferguson Katherine Elliott Kent Grasso Kevin Crawford Kwang Ryu Lance Jasper Lance Pierce Larry Harris, Jr. Liz Montoya Lonsdale Green Lori Ehrlich Luke Leininger • Annette Foster • Aurora Torres • Ben Kidder • Beth Trask • Betsy Hosler • Brad Rosen • Brooke Brody-Waite • Carie Lemack • Carolyn Kousky • Christopher Reichert • Cynthia Smith • Dan McKee • Edward Novakoff • Elizabeth Walentin • Ellen Knebel • Francis Spangenberg • Jason Campbell • Jason Jennaru • Jeff Adler

  3. Matthews • All Politics is Local • It’s Better to Receive than to Give • Dance with the One that Brung Ya • Keep your Enemies in Front of You • Don’t Get Mad; Don’t Get Even; Get Ahead • Leave No Shot Unanswered • Hang a Lantern on your Problem

  4. What is Representation?

  5. The Big Questions • What is truth? • What is justice? • What is fair? • Who decides?

  6. “Perceptions of the Constituency”Richard F. Fenno, Jr.

  7. Concentric Constituencies • Geographic • Reelection • Primary • Personal

  8. Geographical Constituency • “The District” • Physical: specified by boundaries • Internal Demographic and Political Variables: socioeconomic status, ethnicity, ideology, partisanship, religion, diversity, etc. • Heterogeneity v. Homogeneity: variable that seems to determine members’ perceptions of their districts

  9. Reelection Constituency • “The Supporters” • Who she thinks will vote for her • Reference points in determining reelection constituency • Cross-Sectional • Longitudinal • Partisans, Cross-Party, Least-Likely • “Last Time” v. “This Time” • Challenger has greatest potential for altering the size and composition of reelection constituency • Issues can alter reelection constituency

  10. Primary Constituency • “The Strongest Supporters” • Weak supporters: follow routines (straight party) or are temporary (waiting for alternative) • Strong supporters: more political activity, will not support any challenger • Difficult to delineate primary constituency in some cases, members who recently emerged from a primary election can determine their primary constituency

  11. Personal Constituency • “The Intimates” • Few individuals: closest advisors and confidants, sometimes a spouse (“Kitchen Cabinet”) • Usually the people who have been by an official since their first race • Thought of as “friends”

  12. District-Based Conception Yes No Policy/Issue Collective High Policy Content Service/Allocational Symbolic/Descriptive Low Conceptions of Representation

  13. Policy/Issues • Style • Delegate: follow the mandate of constituents • Trustee: exercise independent judgment • “Politico”: switches roles or may engage be a delegate and trustee at same time • Focus • The constituency that is being represented

  14. Policy/Issue Studies • Wahlke et al (1952): divide members into trustee, delegate, and “politico” • Miller & Stokes (1958): attempt to link constituent opinions to legislator’s behavior • Social Welfare: Vote by Party • Civil Rights: Delegate Role • Foreign Affairs: Deference to Executive • Fenno (1977): “home style”; members convince constituents that they represent them regardless of the extent of agreement

  15. Policy/Issue Studies Continued • Browne (1995): constituents influence vote on agricultural legislation • Hall (1987, 1996): district influences legislator membership on committees

  16. Service/Allocational • Obtaining projects that help the district (“pork) or interceding in the bureacracy (“cutting through red tape) • Motives • Sense of duty • Grateful constituents = Reelection • Studies on impact of pork for reelection mixed • Issues: necessary for constituents to have help?, votes for district at expense of nation?

  17. Symbolic/Descriptive • Legislator as “symbol” that represents public • Representation may extend beyond geographic boundaries of the district • Individual Examples: female legislator as advocate for women nationally, minority legislator as advocate for minorities nationally • Group Example: legislative caucuses

  18. Collective • Represent constituents with a more collective view • political parties • Congress as representative of the nation as a whole • May lead to conflict with district constituents

  19. The Great Divide • Trustee Representation (Burkean) • Delegate Representation

  20. Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process Walter J. Oleszek

  21. The Constitutional Context • Limited Government • Separation of Powers • Checks and Balances • Federalism

  22. Functions of Rules and Procedures • Stability (and predictability) • Legitimacy • Division of Labor • Protection of Minority Rights • Conflict Resolution • Distribution of Power

  23. Rules and Policy Making in Congress • Procedure and Policy Procedures affect outcomes. Procedural moves express policy decisions. The nature of policy determines the use of procedure. Procedural expertise helps members impact policy. • Conventional versus Unconventional Lawmaking “I’m just a bill…” • Precedents and Folkways Precedents: “…the accumulated past decisions on matters of procedure…” Folkways: “…unwritten norms of behavior that members are expected to observe.”

  24. Congressional Decision Making •Decentralized Power Structure Political and structural realities More than 200 committees and subcommittees Parties can provide cohesion. • Multiple Decision Points • Bargaining and Coalition Building Logrolling Compromise Nonlegislative Favors • The Congressional Cycle Two-Year Deadline

  25. House versus Senate • The Big Three Size of Body Size of District Length of Term • Complexity of Rules

  26. House versus Senate continued • Policy Incubation • Specialists versus Generalists • Distribution of Power More even in Senate • Similarities Equal power Lawmaking, oversight and representation Heavy workloads Decentralized committee and party structures Dependence on staff

  27. Pressures on Members • President & Executive Branch • The Fourth Estate • Constituent Pressures • Washington Lobbyists

  28. Credits • Adrian Rodriguez & Alex Theodoridis • Presentation based on: Weisberg, Herbert F., Eric S. Heberlig and Lisa M. Campoli, Classics in Congressional Politics “What is Representation?”, Weisberg et al eds. (Glenview: Longman 1999) pp. 68-82. • Image on Cover from: The Architect of the Capitol http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/c_wf_1.cfm Concepts of Representation slide based on: Table 5.1 in Weisberg et al, p. 74. • Presentation based on: Fenno, Jr., Richard F., Home Style: House Members in their Districts (Glenview: Little, Brown & Company 1978), “Perceptions of the Constituency”, pp. 1-30. • Image on Cover from: US Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/images/water_home.jpg

More Related