1. Warm Up
List 5 characteristics you think are important for a member of Congress to have.
Explain why you feel each characteristic is important for your Congressional representatives to have.

2. Representative Assemblies
Because of this distrust of a powerful executive, coupled with an emerging view that just governments derive their powers from the will of the people, the colonists put a great emphasis on representative assemblies
It would be the job of each representative to "enlarge and refine the public views," as suggested by James Madison in The Federalist No. 10

3. The Framers feared that giving too much power to an elected body could lead to mob rule. How did the Federal Government the Framers designed minimize that risk?

4. Congress: The Job
Congress has a split personality. On the one hand, it is a lawmaking institution and makes policy for the entire nation. In this capacity, all the members are expected to set aside their personal ambitions and perhaps even the concerns of their constituencies. Yet Congress is also a representative assembly, made up of 535 elected officials who serve as links between their constituents and the National Government. The dual roles of making laws and responding to constituents’ demands forces members to balance national concerns against the specific interests of their States or districts.
—James M. Burns, et al., Government by the People

5. Roles of Members in Congress
Legislator: Study and draft proposed legislation
Represent their constituents
Serve on specialized committees
Balance the interests between what their party wants and what their constituents want
All of these roles must be performed in order to win reelection
Why are the legislative and agent of constituent roles the most important?

6. Members of both houses of Congress have many roles to play
Members of both houses of Congress have many roles to play. Why are the legislative and agent of constituent roles the most important?

7. Roles of Members in Congress
Delegates: members of Congress who cast votes based on the wishes of their constituents
They believe that they should discover what “the folks back home” think about an issue and vote that way
Trustees: lawmakers who vote based on their conscience and judgment, not the views of their constituents

8. Roles of Members in Congress
Partisans: lawmakers who owe their first allegiance to their political party and vote according to the party line
Most studies of legislators’ voting behavior indicate that partisanship is the leading factor influencing lawmakers’ votes on most important questions
Politicos: lawmakers who attempt to balance the basic elements of the trustee, delegate, and partisan roles

9. Why are these options important in determining the outcome of a vote?
For a member of Congress, deciding how to vote involves more than just a Yea or Nay. Why are these options important in determining the outcome of a vote?

10. Current Voting Trends in Congress
Scholars generally agree that a growing number of legislators adhere to the delegate model
Modern polling helps give legislators much clearer picture of "the will of the people" than was possible in the past
Today's senators and representatives often enter Congress with the goal of remaining in Washington for years to come

12. Members of Congress field many requests, complaints, and concerns from constituents. What does this cartoon suggest about such requests?

13. Compare the demographics of the 113th Congress with the general population. To what extent should the composition of Congress reflect that of the general population? Why?

14. The Senate is divided into three equal classes so that only a third of the Senate seats may change hands in an election. How does the Senate arrangement differ from the House?

17. Closing: How Should Representatives Vote?
Of course, both major parties today seek to serve the national interest. They would do so in order to obtain the broadest base of support, if for no nobler reason. But when party and officeholder differ as to how the national interest is to be served, we must place first the responsibility we owe not to our party or even to our constituents but to our individual consciences. —Senator John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, 1956 Reflect on this quotation and what you’ve learned in this lesson. What factors do you think are most important for members of Congress to consider when casting their votes?