Congress and Lawmaking

1. Congress and Lawmaking Class Notes, Spring 2005

2. February 7, 2005 • Who’s here? • Matthews • What is representation? • Congress as an institution for Representation

3. Matthews • All Politics is Local • It’s Better to Receive than to Give • Dance with the One that Brung Ya • Keep your Enemies in Front of You • Don’t Get Mad; Don’t Get Even; Get Ahead • Leave No Shot Unanswered • Hang a Lantern on your Problem

4. What is Representation?

5. The Big Questions • What is truth? • What is justice? • What is fair? • Who decides?

6. “Perceptions of the Constituency”Richard F. Fenno, Jr.

7. Concentric Constituencies • Geographic • Reelection • Primary • Personal

8. Geographical Constituency • “The District” • Physical: specified by boundaries • Internal Demographic and Political Variables: socioeconomic status, ethnicity, ideology, partisanship, religion, diversity, etc. • Heterogeneity v. Homogeneity: variable that seems to determine members’ perceptions of their districts

9. Reelection Constituency • “The Supporters” • Who she thinks will vote for her • Reference points in determining reelection constituency • Cross-Sectional • Longitudinal • Partisans, Cross-Party, Least-Likely • “Last Time” v. “This Time” • Challenger has greatest potential for altering the size and composition of reelection constituency • Issues can alter reelection constituency

10. Primary Constituency • “The Strongest Supporters” • Weak supporters: follow routines (straight party) or are temporary (waiting for alternative) • Strong supporters: more political activity, will not support any challenger • Difficult to delineate primary constituency in some cases, members who recently emerged from a primary election can determine their primary constituency

11. Personal Constituency • “The Intimates” • Few individuals: closest advisors and confidants, sometimes a spouse (“Kitchen Cabinet”) • Usually the people who have been by an official since their first race • Thought of as “friends”

12. District-Based Conception Yes No Policy/Issue Collective High Policy Content Service/Allocational Symbolic/Descriptive Low Conceptions of Representation

13. Policy/Issues • Style • Delegate: follow the mandate of constituents • Trustee: exercise independent judgment • “Politico”: switches roles or may engage be a delegate and trustee at same time • Focus • The constituency that is being represented

14. Policy/Issue Studies • Wahlke et al (1952): divide members into trustee, delegate, and “politico” • Miller & Stokes (1958): attempt to link constituent opinions to legislator’s behavior • Social Welfare: Vote by Party • Civil Rights: Delegate Role • Foreign Affairs: Deference to Executive • Fenno (1977): “home style”; members convince constituents that they represent them regardless of the extent of agreement

15. Policy/Issue Studies Continued • Browne (1995): constituents influence vote on agricultural legislation • Hall (1987, 1996): district influences legislator membership on committees

16. Service/Allocational • Obtaining projects that help the district (“pork) or interceding in the bureacracy (“cutting through red tape) • Motives • Sense of duty • Grateful constituents = Reelection • Studies on impact of pork for reelection mixed • Issues: necessary for constituents to have help?, votes for district at expense of nation?

17. Symbolic/Descriptive • Legislator as “symbol” that represents public • Representation may extend beyond geographic boundaries of the district • Individual Examples: female legislator as advocate for women nationally, minority legislator as advocate for minorities nationally • Group Example: legislative caucuses

18. Collective • Represent constituents with a more collective view • political parties • Congress as representative of the nation as a whole • May lead to conflict with district constituents

19. The Great Divide • Trustee Representation (Burkean) • Delegate Representation

20. Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process Walter J. Oleszek

21. The Constitutional Context • Limited Government • Separation of Powers • Checks and Balances • Federalism

22. Functions of Rules and Procedures • Stability (and predictability) • Legitimacy • Division of Labor • Protection of Minority Rights • Conflict Resolution • Distribution of Power

23. Rules and Policy Making in Congress • Procedure and Policy Procedures affect outcomes. Procedural moves express policy decisions. The nature of policy determines the use of procedure. Procedural expertise helps members impact policy. • Conventional versus Unconventional Lawmaking “I’m just a bill…” • Precedents and Folkways Precedents: “…the accumulated past decisions on matters of procedure…” Folkways: “…unwritten norms of behavior that members are expected to observe.”

24. Congressional Decision Making •Decentralized Power Structure Political and structural realities More than 200 committees and subcommittees Parties can provide cohesion. • Multiple Decision Points • Bargaining and Coalition Building Logrolling Compromise Nonlegislative Favors • The Congressional Cycle Two-Year Deadline

25. House versus Senate • The Big Three Size of Body Size of District Length of Term • Complexity of Rules

26. House versus Senate continued • Policy Incubation • Specialists versus Generalists • Distribution of Power More even in Senate • Similarities Equal power Lawmaking, oversight and representation Heavy workloads Decentralized committee and party structures Dependence on staff

27. Pressures on Members • President & Executive Branch • The Fourth Estate • Constituent Pressures • Washington Lobbyists

28. Credits • Adrian Rodriguez & Alex Theodoridis • Presentation based on: Weisberg, Herbert F., Eric S. Heberlig and Lisa M. Campoli, Classics in Congressional Politics “What is Representation?”, Weisberg et al eds. (Glenview: Longman 1999) pp. 68-82. • Image on Cover from: The Architect of the Capitol http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/c_wf_1.cfm Concepts of Representation slide based on: Table 5.1 in Weisberg et al, p. 74. • Presentation based on: Fenno, Jr., Richard F., Home Style: House Members in their Districts (Glenview: Little, Brown & Company 1978), “Perceptions of the Constituency”, pp. 1-30. • Image on Cover from: US Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/images/water_home.jpg

29. February 9, 2005 • Individual motivations and their connections to institutional design • Are institutions exogenous or endogenous? • Individuals operate within an institutional setting, but they shape that setting, too. • What are institutions?

30. “The Electoral Connection and Congress”David R. Mayhew

31. Proximate Goal • Reelection • Universal • Cannot achieve other goals if member is not reelected • “All members of Congress have a primary interest in getting re-elected. Some members have no other interest.”

32. Activities Useful for Reelection • Advertising • visiting constituency, non-political speeches to home audiences, letters of condolence and congratulation, newsletters, opinion editorials • Franking Privilege

33. Activities Useful for Reelection • Credit Claiming: generating belief that the legislator is personally responsible for a government change • Particularized Benefits • Given to specific individual or group that allows the single legislator to be recognized • Done in an ad hoc fashion

34. Activities Useful for Reelection • Position-taking: “public enunciation of a judgmental statement on anything likely to be of interest to political actors” • roll call vote, floor addresses, speeches, television appearances, letters, press releases, interviews, etc.

35. Institution Meets Electoral Needs • Benefits Associated with the Office • Staff, casework capabilities, franking privilege • Seniority • Committee Structure • Platform for position-taking, particularized benefits, allows division of labor among members • Parties • Majority party could cut off particularized benefits from minority party, but this has not happened

36. “Member Goals”Richard F. Fenno, Jr.

37. Basic Goals of a Legislator 1. Reelection 2. Influence within the House 3. Good Public Policy X. (career beyond house, private gain) • Committee membership reflects the goal of a legislators

38. Appropriations, Ways & Means • “Power,” “Prestige,” “Importance” • Reflects desire to have influence within the House

39. Interior, Post Office • “District Interests,” “Projects,” “Political Help” • Reflects goal of reelection by helping constituents

40. Education, Labor, Foreign Affairs • “Interesting,” “Exciting,” “Controversial,” “Important” • Reflects goal of making good public policy

41. LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call VotingKeith T. Poole, Howard Rosenthal et al

42. Motivation of Legislator • Ideology • Liberal to Conservative Spectrum • Constraint Hypothesis: issues tend to be mapped onto a fixed ordering or placement of legislators • Voting tends to be highly consistent over a member’s time in office. • History: http://www.voteview.com/h461051.htm

43. Annoying Gap Between Theory and Practice… • What do you make of Representative Steve Tobocman?

44. Upcoming Assignments • Campaign Issues Memo, Due on Monday. • Highlight 3 or 4 issues. Specify your district. Link issues to your district, to your passions, and to your personal history. • Personal Biographies and Committee preferences due next Wednesday. • Hint: http://cq.com

45. Credits • Fenno, Jr., Richard F., “Member Goals,” Congressmen in Committees. (Glenview: Little, Brown & Company, 1973) pp. 1-14. • Image on cover from: “HUD Testimony” U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development http://www.hud.gov/offices/cir/Nomination%20Hearing%20for%20Act%20copy.JPG Accessed 2/7/2005. • Mayhew, David R., “The Electoral Connection and the Congress,” Congress: Structure and Policy, Terry Sullivan ed. (New Haven: Cambridge University Press, 1974) pp. 18-29. • Images on cover from: Tameside.gov.uk http://www.tameside.gov.uk/include/vote2.gif Accessed 2/7/2005; “Congressional Apportionment—What is it?” United States Census. http://www.census.gov/population/www/img/house1.gif Accessed 2/7/2005; “Seal of the United States Senate,” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_United_States_Senate Accessed 2/7/2005 • Poole, Keith T. and Howard Rosenthal et al, Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) pp. 3-26.

46. The Politics of Congressional Elections Gary C. Jacobson

47. Context of Congressional Elections • Constitutional Framework • Congressional Districts • Election Laws • Political Parties • Social and Political

48. Gerrymandering • Partisan • Tempered by incumbent protection (another use of the gerrymander) and candidate focused voters • Facilitated by new computer programs • Districts with multiple incumbents • Colorado and Texas • Davis v. Bandemer – partisan gerrymander unconstitutional if sufficiently egregious. • Iowa: a model for reform? • Racial • Thornburg v. Gingles – districts should not discriminate against minorities. • California’s 6th District in 1982 • North Carolina’s 12th • Shaw v. Reno and Miller v. Johnson – limits placed on blatant racial redistricting • Hunt v. Cromartie – race can be considered if primary motivation is partisan.

49. Incumbency • • Reelection Rates – generally higher in House (rarely under 90%) than in Senate (ranges from 55% to 97% in post-WWII elections) • • Sophomore Surge & Retirement Slump  Slurge • • Vanishing Marginals • Some Sources of the Incumbency Advantage • Institutional Characteristics of Congress (Mayhew) • Voting Behavior • Constituent Service • Discouraging opposition through casework, mailings... • Career in the District (Fenno) • Expansionist  Protectionist • Money • Spending far more important for nonincumbents, especially challengers • So, why are there challengers? • Naiveté • Easy road to nomination • Demonstrate party presence • Rewards in simply running

50. Money • • FECA • • Private Individuals (largest source) • • PACs • • Party Money • Money from Colleagues • Self-Financing