Government: Congress and Policy
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Created by:
13woodruffm1 on April 25, 2012
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69 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 bicamera legislature | a lawmaking body made up of two chambers or parts |
| Phase one | the powerful house; house of reps was prominent institution |
| Phase Two | the divided house; Jackson began asserting power of presidency, slavery made party unity very difficult |
| Phase Three | the speaker rules |
| Phase Four | The house revolts; voted to strip Speaker of his right to appoiint committee chairmen and to remove him from Rules committee |
| Phase Five | The Members Rule; committee chairmen no longer selected simply on seniority but elected by majority party; chairmen couldn't refuse to call committee meetings; meetings had to be mostly public |
| Phase Six | The Leadership returns; efforts to restore power to the speaker in order to get more done in the house |
| Reasons Senate is better | 1. can be run without giving authority to any small group of leaders 2. small enough so no time limits have to be placed on how long a senator can speak |
| Why was Senate known as Millionaire's Club? | state legislation was choosing senators, there was lots of corruption with money; 17th amendment did not immediately change composition |
| filibuster | an attempt to defeat a bill in the Senate by talking indefinitely, thus preventing the Senate from taking action to the bill; governed by Rule 22 |
| marginal districts | political districts in which candidates elected to the House of Representatives win in close elections, typically by less than 55 percent of the vote |
| safe districts | districts in which incumbents win by margins of 55 percent or more |
| why congressional seats have become less marginal | voters are voting for the person and they are more likely to vote for someone they've heard of; incumbents use power to get programs passed that benefit their district |
| Why democrats have so prominently dominated the house and senate | 1. gerrymandering (difficult to prove) 2. idea that they win more in low turnout districts 3. power of incumbency grew as Democrats were in the majority; when people started blaming the mess in washington the democrats were in power and so they were kicked out 4. democrats have better electability |
| conservative coalition | an alliance between Republican and conservative Democrats |
| representational view | assumption that members want to get reelected and therefore vote to please their constituents; public opinion is not strong and clear on most measures and certain interest groups are only taken seriously depending on how the legislator sees them |
| organizational view | legislators vote to please fellow members of congress; on issues that aren't "big" and on which a member is not educated, they may look to someone ideologically similar to them; party is the biggest indicator of how someone will vote |
| attitudinal view | ideology; house is usually closer than senate to the public; members are more sharply divided by political ideology than they once were and are more divided than the American public |
| majority leader | the legislative leader elected by party members holding the majority of seats in the House or the Senate; has the right to be recognized first in any floor debate; schedules the business of the Senate, usually in consultation with the minority leader |
| minority leader | The legislative leader elected by party members holding a minority of seats in the House or the Senate |
| whip | a senator or representative who helps the party leader stay informed about what party members are thinking |
| Policy Committee | a dozen or so senators chosen by each party that help the party leader schedule Senate business |
| Steering Committee | democrat committee that assign senators to the standing committees of the senate |
| Committee on Committees | republican committee that assigns senators to the standing committees of the senate |
| why is a majority important in senate | controlling the chairmanships is important because it helps determine what issues will get to the floor for a vote; doesn't matter in votes because other side can filibuster |
| Leadership carries more power in the _____ | house; house must restrict debate and schedule business carefully |
| formal powers of the Speaker | decides who shall be recognized to speak on the floor; rules whether a motion is relevant and germane; decides the committees to which new bills shall be assigned; influences what bills are brought up for a vote; appoints members of special and select committees; nominates majority-party members of Rules Committee |
| informal powers of Speaker | controls some patronage jobs |
| is the majority leader the same thing as the Speaker | NO; the majority leader would take place of Speaker in chance of death, etc. |
| party polarization | a vote in which a majority of democratic legislators oppose a majority of Republican legislators |
| caucus | an association of Congress members created to advance a political ideology or a regional, ethnic, or economic interest |
| six types of caucuses | intraparty, personal interest, constituency concerns (national), constituency concerns (regional), constituency concerns (state/district), constituency concerns (industry) |
| standing committee | permanently established legislative committees that consider and are responsible for legislation within a certain subject area |
| select committees | congressional committees appointed for a limited time and purpose |
| joint committees | committees on which both senators and representatives serve |
| conference committees | a joint committee appointed to resolve difference int eh Senate and House versions of the same bill |
| public bill | a legislative bill that deals with matters of general concern |
| private bill | a legislative bill that deals only with specific, private, personal, or local matters |
| simple resolution | an expression of opinion either in the House or Senate to settle procedural matters in either body |
| concurrent resolution | an expression of opinion without the force of law that requires the approval of both the House and the Senate, but not the President |
| joint resolution | a formal expression of congressional opinion that must be approved by both houses of Congress and by they president; constitutional amendments need not be signed by the president |
| multiple referral | a congressional process whereby a bill may be referred to several committees |
| sequential referral | a congressional process by which aSpeaker may send a bill to a second committee after the first is finished acting |
| discharge petition | a device by which any member of the House, after a committee has had the bill for thirty days, may petition to have it brought to the floor |
| closed rule | An order from the House Rules Committee that sets a time limit on debate; forbids a bill from being amended on the floor |
| open rule | an order from the House Rules Committee that permits a bill to be amended on the floor |
| restrictive rule | an order from the house rules committee that permits certain kinds of amendments but not others to be made into a bill on the floor |
| quorum | the minimum number of members who must be present for business to be conducted in Congress |
| quorum call | a roll call in either house of Congress to see whether the minimum number of representatives required to conduct business is present |
| three ways to bypass the rules committee | 1. vote for rules to be suspended, requires 2/3 2. a discharge petition 3. house can use the "Calendar Wednesday procedure" in which any committee can bring up for action a bill of its own already on a calendar -- action must be completed that day or the bill goes back to committee |
| cloture rule | a rule used by the Senate to end or limit debate |
| double-tracking | a procedure to keep the Senate going during a filibuster in which the disputed bill is shelved temporarily so that the Senate can get on with other business |
| voice vote | a congressional voting procedure in which members shout "yea" in approval or "nay" in disapproval, permitting members to vote quickly or anonymously on bills |
| division vote | a congressional voting procedure in which members stand and are counted |
| teller vote | a congressional voting procedure in which members pass between two tellers, the "yeas" first and the "nays" second |
| roll-call vote | a congressional voting procedure that consists of members answering "yea" or "nay" to their names |
| pork-barrel legislation | legislation that gives tangible benefits to constituents in several districts or states in the hope of winning their votes in return |
| franking privilege | the ability of members to mail letters to their constituents free of charge by substituting their facsimile signature for postage |
| political agenda | issues that people believe require governmental action |
| cost | a burden that people believe they must bear if a policy is enacted |
| benefit | a satisfaction that people believe they will enjoy if a policy is adopted |
| majoritarian politics | a policy in which almost everybody benefits and almost everybody pays |
| interest group politics | a policy in which one small group benefits and another small group pays |
| client politics | a policy in which one small group benefits and almost everybody pays |
| pork-barrel legislation | legislation that gives tangible benefits to constituents in several districts or states in the hope of winning their votes in return |
| logrolling | a legislator supports a proposal favored by another in return for support of his or hers |
| entrepreneurial politics | a policy in which almost everybody benefits and a small group pays the cost |
| policy entrepreneurs | activists in or out of government who pull together a political amjority on behalf of unorganized interests |
| process regulation | rules governing commercial activities designed to improve consumer, worker, or environmental conditions; also called social regulation |
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