American Government and Politics (POLS 122) Professor Jonathan Day

Outline for the Week 1. Congress and the People 2. The Structure of Congress 3. How Congress passes a Law

Outline for the Week 1. Congress and the People 2. The Structure of Congress 3. How Congress passes a Law

Outline for Today 1. Attendance 2. The Image of Congress 3. Styles of Representation 4. Redistricting 5. Next Class

The Image of Congress Congress has an approval rating much lower than the approval rating of each individual congressperson Why?

How Congresspersons Represent their District Trustee – “A member of Congress who represents constituents’ interests and policy concerns while also taking into account national, collective, and moral concerns that sometimes cause the member to vote against the preference of a majority of constituents” (p. 352) Delegates – “A member of Congress who loyally represents constituents’ direct interests” (p. 352) Politicos – “A member of Congress who acts as a delegate on issues that constituents care about (like civil rights) and as a trustee on more complex or less salient issues (like some foreign policy or regulatory matters)” (p. 352)

Redistricting What is a Congressional District? There are 435 members of Congress. This means that each member of Congress represents about 700,000 people. A congressional district is the area that a congressperson represents which needs to equal about 700,000 people. Each state gets the number of congressional districts that equal the size of its population. Illinois for example has about 13 million people, which means it needs 19 congressional seats.

Redistricting After each national census, the congressional seats are reapportioned, which means the number of congressional seats each state receives may change? Why would the number of congressional seats that each state receives change? Because of this change, the state needs to redraw the district lines, which is called “redistricting”

Redistricting The political parties can take advantage of this by giving themselves an advantage in the elections.

Redistricting R R R R R R D D D D D D

Redistricting R R R R R R D D D D D D

Redistricting R R R R R R D D D D D D

Illinois Congressional District #17

Illinois Congressional District #18

Next Class Please read Chapter 10, “Congress”, in APT, pages 357 – 382 by Wednesday “The Structure of Congress”