DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
AND
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Posc 105
CONGRESS
- THIS MORNING:
- Congressional structure, leadership, and policy making.
- The presidency
- CONGRESS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE:
- Functions:
- Legislative or law making
- Representation of geographical and other interests
- Case work: constituency service and the "permanent campaign"
- These are the keys to reelection, not necessarily statesmanship.
- Administrative oversight
- Advise and consent
- A power of the senate
- Examples: Supreme Court nominees,
approval of cabinet officers,
treaties.
- Investigative (e.g.,
Thompson committee on campaign finance as illustrated
in the film.)
- Structure:
- The House:
- Type of representation,
some claim, makes house more "parochial"
and subject to narrow interests.
- Size implies more formal rules,
disciplined discussion and debate.
- The Rules committee
- Powers
- The "people's" house must
initiate tax legislation
- Speaker, majority and
minority leaders, whips
- Committees and subcommittees.
- Caucuses
- Campaign committees.
- The Senate
- Broader constituencies
- Longer terms.
- Powers
- Informality and less rigorous rules.
- Shared powers and cooperation.
- Congressional leadership
- Seniority system in slight decline.
- Power is based largely on "trust"
(We the People, page 344),
personal
skill, and loyalty (e.g., Gingrich).
- GENERALIZATIONS:
- From yesterday's notes
- Legislators have so many responsibilities
and are pulled in some many directions
that they have relatively little time for deliberation.
- Congress is seldom a forum for
discussion and debate about national issues
and priorities.
- Congress' fragmented power structure,
the importance of constituency services,
separate constituencies, political
independence all diminish accountability and
capacity.
- Members behave exactly as one
would expect political entrepreneurs to
act: they assert their independence,
attempt to protect and expand their
bases of support, bargain for specific
benefits rather than rigidly adhere to a
party line, listen to those who are most
helpful in winning reelection, and
the like.
- Congressional decision making involves
a labyrinth of rules and procedures
that help members "hide" from responsibility.
- On the other hand, congressional
organization and procedures enhance (strong)
group influence.
- Congress deals mainly with
"middle-level" (branch, twig, symbolic, group, and
regional) issues.
- It does not debate or
deliberate about "grand" strategies
or policies.
- Frequently, if not mostly, it
enacts policies in a disjointed fashion.
- The only meaningful reforms are
those that strengthen party discipline. Until that is
done, the system will continue to misfire
and accountability remain elusive.
- Congress seldom breaks really new
ground. It often acts
only after the public has
been "sold" on a policy.
- OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY:
- The expectations gap: difference
between public wants and what a president can
do.
- Americans expect presidents to be
all things to all people.
- Presidential popularity frequently
declines the longer a president is in office.
- See "Presidential Approval Ratings"
on the web site.
- The trend shown in the figure
summarizes, I think, the American
political experience.
- At the height of the cold war
(about 1966 to 1974) many scholars and journalists
fretted about the "imperial presidency."
- The White House, many in and
out of Congress felt, needed to be
controlled.
- Yet one can argue that power of the
presidency is overstated.
- Presidents themselves often come to
feel frustrated and disappointed.
- These feelings have led to enormous
antagonisms and brought many
presidents into bitter conflict with the media,
the Congress, voters, and
parties.
- Indeed, given expectations
and beliefs about presidential power, the office
has surprisingly limited power.
- Many of the very institutions,
structures, practices, and traditions
that seem to give presidents their influence
and authority actually
limit what they can do.
- Sources of strength are
simultaneously sources potential sources of
weakness.
- Note, for example, how
commonly president "drift" into foreign
affairs, an area in which they come
to feel more comfortable. Why?
Because they may feel they have
greater control over foreign
policy than domestic politics.
- We'll examine this argument in
the context of attempts to explain presidential
successes and failures.
- NEXT TIME:
- The strengths and weaknesses of the office.
- Film on President Clinton presidency
- Reading:
- You should be finished
with Debt and Deficits shortly.
Go to Notes page
Go to American Political System page
Go to H. T. Reynolds page