Congress The Most Powerful Democratic Assembly in the World – or – the Sapless Branch

“There are really two Congresses, not just one.” --Roger Davidson & Walter Oleszek, Congress & Its Members “It is both a lawmaking institution for the country and a representative assembly for states and districts.” --Thomas E. Patterson [372]

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY Complex organization designed to make laws Linkage mechanism between society and government Relationships among members Relationships with external publics Congressional legislative powers Congressional recruitment rules Article I, §§ 1, 7 & 8Article I, §§ 2-4 Congress Has a Split Personality

Which Personality Dominates? How popular is the institution of Congress with the American people?

(December 15, 2010)

(October 15, 2010)

Which Personality Dominates? How popular is the institution of Congress with the American people? How popular are individual members of Congress in their local districts? How often are members defeated when they run for reelection? These facts should provide some pretty strong clues to the original question: “which personality dominates,” lawmaking or representation?

87% in 2010

The two sides of the Congress’s personality obviously affect each other. *** The dominant side dominates! (Duh.) *** Congress's characteristics as a Representative Assembly significantly shape how well [or how poorly] it handles its job as a National Legislature.

Motivation of Members Why would anyone want to be a member of Congress? What's the first step to accomplishing these goals? Once you're elected, what are your priorities? What kinds of behaviors do you have from which to choose? [Let’s borrow three terms popularized by political scientist Morris Fiorina.]

Fiorina’s Typology of Congressional Behaviors Lawmaking, Pork Barreling, & Casework What are the advantages and disadvantages of each to the reelection of members? How would you want the Congress organized in order to maximize your ability to engage in these electorally useful activities with maximum effect?

How would the members organize Congress if all they cared about were reelection? Strong parties or weak parties? Unified legislative process or lots of committees and subcommittees? Staff devoted to individual members or to legislative functions?

How would the members organize Congress if all they cared about were reelection? weak parties so you can say and do whatever your reelection demands; lots of committees and subcommittees to give each member a bit of the lime light and make it easier to claim credit for things; lots of personal staff for constituent service, and committee staff to do the legislative work so your personal staff can do more important things like send a personal letter of congratulation to every high school graduate in the district.

How is Congress actually organized? weak parties so you can say and do whatever your reelection demands; lots of committees and subcommittees to give each member a bit of the lime light and make it easier to claim credit for things; lots of personal staff for constituent service, and committee staff to do the legislative work so your personal staff can do more important things like send a personal letter of congratulation to every high school graduate in the district.

How would Congress organize the government if all they cared about were reelection? lots of distributive programs: government services, pork-barrel projects low taxes lots of bureaucratic decisions to provide opportunities for casework a system that allows individual members of Congress to intervene on behalf of private parties

How is the government organized? lots of distributive programs: government services, pork-barrel projects low taxes lots of bureaucratic decisions to provide opportunities for casework a system that allows individual members of Congress to intervene on behalf of private parties

How would you organize Congress if your purpose were to create an institution that could efficiently enact the laws that the nation needs? Hold national elections dominated by strong political parties with clear agendas Create strong party leaders in Congress with the power to direct the work of the committees Exercise strong party discipline in voting so that the party platform of the winning party could be transformed into public policy

Results "Great individual responsiveness, equally great collective irresponsibility." – Gary Jacobson "A system of surpassing excellence for representing the people and grossly deficient in the means for governing the people." -- James Young

In short... Congress is organized to facilitate member representation of diverse and conflicting constituencies, at the expense of efficient legislation in service of national majorities. But that is exactly what the framers had in mind: remember James Madison’s argument for a large republic as a check against the vice of majority faction.

System Bias of the American Congress “Advantage to the defense” “Subsystem dominance” “Iron Triangles, Policy Subsystems & Interest Group Liberalism” Can you think of more?