Classroom Notes Review

Congress - 2 worlds of Congress World on Capital Hill in D.C.: the lawmaking Congress World of the district: where members relate to constituents - Power of (congressional) incumbency: almost all incumbents run for re-election; almost all win - Advantages of incumbency: name recognition & relative experience, money, campaign organization, time (challengers run a compressed campaign) - Strategic politicians hypothesis: Experienced politicians make strategic/rational decisions about when to run for higher office. Potential campaign contributors make strategic decisions about when and to whom to contribute. Appearance of incumbents invincibility - (Mayhew's) "Continuous campaign": name recognition, service record, and single-minded seekers of re-electionDo individual members responsiveness to their districts lead to collective irresponsibility on part of Congress? NO "Advertising": members efforts to get their names and themselves in front of constituents in a positive light Franking privilege: free postage Trips home "Credit-claiming": members claim personal responsibility for moving government to do things for the district and constituents Pork barrel legislation: Legislation that provides members of Congress with federal projects and programs for their individual districts. (Grants and $) These have concentrated benefits with dispersed costs. Casework: The activity undertaken by members of Congress and their staffs to solve constituents problems with government agencies. "Position-taking": take the right position and cast the right vote on matters important to the district Representation and responsibility in Congress Members always tempted to overproduce, especially if primary concern is re-election. Collective action problem: each member pursues a rational, individually productive strategycollective irresponsibility Particularized benefits: programs, projects, earmarks ($), tax breaks targeted at constituentsmembers pursuit of this is criticized

Features of Congress that enable work to get done Formal Organization: Role of the committee system. Committees serve as filters, trap bills, and prevent overload (90% of bills die in committees. Provide division of labor (enables members to develop expertise and facilitates information provision. Congressional standing committees, subcommittees, House Rules Committee, conference committee Political parties and party leadership: majority party in house and senate controls major leadership positions, committees and subcommittees (and their chairs), floor debate (more so in the House). Among other things, party leaders serve as traffic cops (address potential coordination problems, schedule floor business, and are coalition builders, meaning they persuade others. Informal congressional norms and rules of behavior Respect and institutional loyalty Reciprocity: be willing to bargain, compromise, and work with others Logrolling: trading of favors or votes Role(s) of) party leadership in Congress Speaker of the House: The presiding officer of the House of Representatives. They are elected at the beginning of each congressional session on a party-line vote. As head of the majority party they have substantial control over the legislative agenda of the House. Majority leaders in House and Senate: The formal leader of the party controlling a majority of the seats in the House or the Senate. In the Senate they are the head of the majority party. In the House they rank second in the party hierarchy behind the Speaker. Minority leaders in House and Senate: The formal leader of the party controlling a minority of the seats in the House or the Senate. Why the rise in party unity? Disappearance of Conservative Coalition, or conservative democrats in the South. They either became Republicans or were replaced by Republicans - Conditional party government: The degree of authority delegated to and exercised by congressional leaders; varies withis conditioned bythe extent of election-driven ideological consensus among members. Ideological homogeneity within each party, but ideological divergence between the partiesmembers willing to grant power to party leaders. Some basic differences between U.S. House and U.S. Senate House party leaders tend to be stronger House has greater specialization House has more limits on floor debate and amendment House has 2 year terms relative to 6 year terms. Filibuster: A tactic used in the Senate to halt action on a bill. It involves making long speeches until the majority retreats. Senators, once holding the floor, have unlimited time to speak unless a cloture vote is passed by three-fifths of the members. Cloture: A parliamentary procedure used to close debate. It is used in the Senate to cut off filibusters. Under the current Senate rules, three-fifths of senators must vote for it to halt a filibuster. Unanimous consent agreements: A unanimous resolution in the Senate restricting debate and limiting amendments to bills on the floor.

Presidency (Rossiters) presidential roles and responsibilities Constitutional: Chief of state ceremonial, symbolic Chief Executive chief administrator Chief Legislator Chief Diplomat Commander-in-Chief: The title that is given to the president by the Constitution and that denotes the presidents authority as the head of the national military. Extra-Constitutional: Chief of political party Manager of the economy Voice of the people Protector of peace (domestic tranquility, i.e. Hurricane Katrina) World leader Neustadt's treatment of presidential power: weak Power of persuasion: needs to persuade people to get what he wants done Professional reputation: how people in Washington view him Public prestige: how public views him - Doctrine of the unitary executive: When a president claims prerogative to attach signing statements to bills of a new law that encroaches on his/her constitutional prerogatives as "the chief executive" or as commander in chief. Signing statements: A statement issued by the president that is intended to modify implementation or ignore altogether provisions of a new law. Kernells Going Public strategy: force Congress to pass certain legislation by scaring them and making direct appeals to voters Why/how its rise: government is now about individualized pluralism, not institutionalized. Bargaining with congress is hard in a divided government. New technology makes going public easier Barber's treatment of presidential personality: based on character, style, and worldview Criticisms: Too subjective, more than 2 dimensions, external events and conditions more important than personality, like Neustadt, reflects bias toward activist, liberal presidents? (Presidential) Character: the basic stance a man takes toward his presidential experience (how active he is, and whether he seems to enjoy his political life) (Presidential) Political style: the presidents habitual way of performing his three political roles: rhetoric, personal relations, and homework Active-positive personality type: Does a lot of good work, and gets a lot of personal enjoyment from it. (Roosevelt) Active-negative personality type: Does a lot of work, gets little satisfaction (Reagan) Passive-positive personality type: Does little work, but feels satisfied (Nixon) Passive-negative personality type: Does little in politics and doesnt even enjoy it. (Eisenhower) Clinton is active, undecided if he was positive or negative.

Supreme Court - Judicial review: The authority of the Supreme Court to declare laws of Congress and actions of the president unconstitutional and therefore invalid. (Article III) - Marbury v. Madison (1803): Supreme Court case where Chief Justice Marshall claimed the power of judicial review for the Supreme Court, first time something deemed unconstitutional. Who should interpret the Constitution? 1. Judicial supremacy: courts should have the final say (dominant view in U.S.) - Separation of powers requires? - Individual and minority rights need protection from the majority? - (Brown v. Board, Roe v. Wade) 2. Coordinate construction: meaning of Constitution is/should be found in dialogue among the 3 branches. - Court makes mistakes (i.e. Plessy (1896)) - Too much power for un-democratic institution? - Un-elected elite cant safeguard liberty and minority rights. - Court is institutionally weak and cant enforce its decisions: relies on President and executive branch. HOW should the Court interpret the Constitution? 1. Strict constructionist view: justices should confine themselves to literal language of the Constitution and original intent of the Framers - Constitution and it meaning should be stable and unchanging - Difficulties with the fact that language and words arent self-defining - Whose intent? - What about modern issues? Post-Framers amendments? 2. Judicial activist view (loose construction): justices should/must promote those principles and rights they believe underlie an evolving Constitution - Its meaning must evolve and changeliving document - Griswold v. Connecticut (1965): Constitution protects right to privacy (allowed contraception) - Roe v. Wade (1973): allowed abortion to protect mothers health and prenatal life. Allowed until baby can potentially live outside mothers womb - Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992): challenged Roe v. Wade. The only thing changed is that you dont have to notify spouse in PA.

Federal Bureaucracy - Federal Bureaucracy: A complex structure of offices, tasks, and rules in which employees have specific responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority. In government, they are charged with implementing policies. - Myth(s): Americans dislike bureaucrats, bureaucracies are growing bigger each year, most federal bureaucrats work in Washington, D.C., and bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape - Difficulties presidents confront He only appoints a few thousand of the 2.7 million bureaucrats Going native: once appointed to a bureaucracy, even initially loyal officials go off and marry the natives becoming agents of their departments or bureaus instead of the president SOPs: standard operating procedures Iron triangles: A stable, mutually beneficial political relationship among a congressional committee (or subcommittee), administrative agency, and organized interests concerned with a particular policy domain. "Institutional imperative" Congress as competing principal: competes with the president for bureaucratic control Creates and abolishes departments and agencies, and can transfer their functions Has the power of the purse Engages in oversight Senate must confirm presidential appointees

Some additional terms, concepts, and subjects from The Logic

(Chapter 6: Congress) Importance of the drawing of district lines Gerrymandering: Drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party a disproportionately large share of seats for the share of votes its candidates win. May happen if one party controls both the legislature and governorship Candidate-centered campaigns: where the advertising and theme of the campaign is the candidate himself, not the party or the issues. Started with democrats leads to collective action problems

(Chapter 7: Presidency) - Executive privilege: The presidents right to withhold information from Congress and the courts. Presidents assert that this right, nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, is necessary to maintain separation of powers among the branches of government. - Executive order: A presidential directive to an executive agency establishing new policies or indicating how an existing policy is to be carried out. - Executive Office of the President (EOP): Collection of agencies that help the president oversee department and agency activities, formulate budgets and monitor spending, craft legislation, and lobby Congress. National Security Council: The highest advisory body to the president on military and diplomatic issues. Established in 1947, this agency in the Executive Office of the President helps the president coordinate the actions of government agencies, including the State and Defense Departments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, into a single cohesive policy for dealing with other nations. White House Office (WHO): Agency in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) that serves as the presidents personal staff system. Although the entire EOP does the presidents business, the White House staff consists of the presidents personal advisers, who oversee the political and policy interests of the administration. Office of Management and Budget (OMB): Previously known as the Bureau of the Budget, this is the most important agency in the Executive Office of the President. The budget bureau, created in 1921 to act as a central clearinghouse for all budget requests, was renamed and given increased responsibilities in 1970. It advises the president on fiscal and economic policies, creates the annual federal budget, and monitors agency performance, among other duties. Central clearance: A presidential directive requiring that all executive agency proposals, reports, and recommendations to Congressmostly in the form of annual reports and testimony at authorization and appropriations hearingsbe certified by the Office of Management and Budget as consistent with the presidents policy. - Divided government: A term used to describe government when one political party controls the executive branch and the other political party controls one or both houses of the legislature. - Ticket splitting: voting for candidates of different parties for different offices (weakens parties) - Presidential coattails: Common metaphor for the capacity of a successful presidential candidate to generate votes for other candidates further down the ticket and pull fellow partisans into office.

(Chapter 8: Federal Bureaucracy) - Spoils system: A system in which newly elected officeholders award government jobs to political supporters and members of the same political party. - Merit system: the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections - The (presidential) cabinet: composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States who advise and assist the president in his duties. Cabinet officers are nominated by the President and then presented to the United States Senate for confirmation or rejection by a simple majority. If approved, they are sworn in and begin their duties. Aside from the Attorney General, and previously, the Postmaster General, they all receive the title Secretary. Members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the President, which means the President may remove them at will. - Clientele agencies: The category of people, or groups, served by a bureaucratic agency. Independent executive agencies, independent regulatory commissions Methods of congressional control of... - Iron triangles: A stable, mutually beneficial political relationship among a congressional committee (or subcommittee), administrative agency, and organized interests concerned with a particular policy domain. - Issue networks: A loose, informal, and highly variable web of relationships among representatives of various interests who are involved in a particular area of public policy.

(Chapter 9: Federal Judiciary) Major eras of the Supreme Court: 1) Nation versus State - during the first and least active era, the unresolved jurisdictional boundaries between the national and state governments were at the heart of the judiciary's most significant cases. (McCulloch v. Maryland and Dred Scott v. Sandford) 2) Regulating the National Economy - the major issue during this era (Civil War to 1930s) was the government's regulation of the economy. [The primacy of property rights, Court-packing plan] 3) The Rise of Civil Rights and Liberties - during this period (1940s on), the Court's main object of concern was the relationship between the individual and the government. Before winning victories in Congress, civil rights proponents found a Supreme Court willing to support their cause. Organization of the federal judiciary - District courts: The trial courts of original jurisdiction in the federal judicial system. - Courts of appeal: a court whose jurisdiction is to review decisions of lower courts or agencies - Supreme Court: the highest court in the United States of America. It has ultimate (but largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases. The Court meets in Washington, D.C. in the United States Supreme Court Building, and consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they are removed after impeachment. - FDRs Court Packing Plan: An attempt by President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1937, to remodel the federal judiciary. Its purpose ostensibly was to alleviate the overcrowding of federal court dockets by allowing the president to appoint an additional Supreme Court justice for every sitting justice over the age of seventy. The legislation passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate by a single vote. If it had passed, Roosevelt could have added six new justices to the high bench, thereby installing a new Court majority sympathetic to his New Deal programs. - Writ of certiorari: An order by which the Supreme Court determines what cases it will hear. - Rule of four: A rule employed by the Supreme Courts stating that when four justices support hearing a case the certiorari petition is granted. - Amicus curiae: "Friend of the court." A brief filed in a lawsuit by an individual or group that is not party to the lawsuit but that has an interest in the outcome. These briefs argue that a certiorari petition should be granted or denied. - Stare decisis: "Let the decision stand." In court rulings, a reliance on precedents, or previous rulings, in formulating decisions in new cases. - Majority opinion: a judicial opinion agreed to by more than half of the members of a court. A majority opinion sets forth the decision of the court and an explanation of the rationale behind the court's decision - Dissenting opinion: The written opinion of one or more Supreme Court justices who disagree with the ruling of the Courts majority. The opinion outlines the rationale for their disagreement. - Concurring opinions: A written opinion by a Supreme Court justice who agrees with the decision of the Court but disagrees with the rationale for reaching that decision. - Senatorial courtesy: An informal practice in which senators are given veto power over federal judicial appointments in their home states.