Party Government
According to conditional party government theory, under what two conditions will members of Congress delegate authority to party leadership?
1. When the parties have similar/common policy preferences.
2. When the parties have very different policy preferences from each other.
What is meant by the term "the 60 vote Senate"?
Because the Senate requires 60 votes to invoke cloture and defeat a filibuster, the Senate requires 60 votes to pass most bills. This leads to increased gridlock.
What are the three main models that political scientists have used to understand the purposes served by congressional committees?
1. Distributive model: MCs use committees to pursue individualistic goals and deliver benefits to their districts.
2. Informational model: MCs fulfill institutional goals and develop expertise to make informed judgements to resolve national problems.
3. Partisan model: MCs use committees to fulfill partisan goals and support their party's programs (and/or block programs not support by a majority of their party).
What is the "outside" lobbying strategy? What kind of groups are more likely to use an outside strategy?
The outsider strategy mobilizes votes/popular support to shape legislators’ electoral incentives, so that MCs believe that they will lose votes if they do not comply with the mobilizers' requests.
This is most effective among broad-based interest groups on high-salience issues.
What’s the difference between police patrol oversight and fire alarm oversight? Which is more common, and why?
Police patrol oversight involves continuous investigation of the bureaucracy, whereas fire alarm oversight consists of decentralized, reactive investigations in response to third-party complaints.
The latter is more common, because it's less costly for Congress to respond to complaints than have ongoing, generic investigations.
What does Frances Lee mean when she discusses the importance of "insecure majorities"? How has this phenomenon shaped MCs' behavior?
Because either party now stands a reasonable chance of winning control of Congress, MCs' are more incentivized to conduct partisan gamesmanship rather than cooperate with the other side.
This leads them to empower party leadership to a) handle party messaging and b) bring "message votes" to the floor.
Why has the Senate seen a rise in filibustering over the past several decades?
1. Filibustering has become “costless” to the minority party
2. Party polarization increases the incentive to filibuster, as well as the likelihood it will succeed
What is "negative committee power"?
It's when committees engage in gatekeeping and block proposed bills from reaching the floor. This happens to 90% of bills!
What expectations does Mancur Olson’s approach to the study of collective action lead us to have about the types of groups that will lobby Congress?
Mancur Olson highlights how collective action problems will be most ably solved by groups that are a) small (e.g. narrow corporate interests), or b) able to provide material/social incentives (e.g. professional associations).
What is meant by the "politicization of bureaucracy"?
Since the 1970s, the president has increased their number of appointments to the bureaucracy, often for roles that do not require Senate confirmation. This gives the president greater leverage in shaping policy.
What is the Hastert Rule? Why is it significant?
The Hastert Rule is the long-standing practice where House majority party leadership will not bring a bill up to a vote if a majority of their own party does not support it.
This is significant because it's an example of the majority party blocking the policy aspirations of the minority party in order to protect its own brand.
What are 3 things that influence MCs' ideal points?
1. Constituents’ preferences
2. Party (think of how different the ideal points are of Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson)
3. Personal ideology (think of how Mike Lee and Mitt Romney differ)
What are two differences between the mid-20th century committee process and the contemporary committee process? What have these changes meant for the power of committees and their chairs?
Committee chairs are now elected via secret ballots.
Chairs now share power with subcommittee chairs.
There are 6-year term limits (for Republican chairs).
Seniority is ignored when promoting MCs to chairships.
As a result of changes like this, committees (and chairs) have lost a great deal of their power to party leadership.
Why has the president gained the role of "chief legislator"?
The president has many tools for influencing Congress, such as persuasion (see Neustadt) and "going public" (i.e. the bully pulpit).
They are seen as the leader of their party, and therefore they're expected to propose a program that becomes the basis for much of Congress’s agenda that term.
Aside from oversight, what 2 tools does Congress have to influence the bureaucracy? For each tool, name an obstacle Congress faces when using it.
1. Legislative restrictions: Via the Congressional Review Act of 1996, Congress can overturn presidential orders/eliminate discretion. However, these can be vetoed, so usually 2/3 votes are needed to be successful.
2. Confirmation process: The Senate can refuse to confirm the president's nominees to the bureaucracy. However, the president can (and has increasingly) rely on acting appointments to avoid confirmation battles for extended periods.
What role did Reed's Rules and the revolt against Speaker Cannon play in the balance of power in Congress?
Speaker Reed's rules represented the height of the Speaker of the House's authority relative to committee chairs. Speaker Cannon further pursued this authority and faced a revolt. MCs stripped the speaker of a lot of power, which became concentrated back in the hands of committee chairs.
If enough MCs decided to get rid of the filibuster, how can they do so?
They would enact the "nuclear option", where a simple majority ratifies a point of order changing Senate rules so cloture requires 50 votes instead of 60.
Why did the budget process in Congress fall apart in the 1960s and early-70s?
Congress sought to remedy the president's use of impoundments to refuse spending money they appropriated, as well as to better tackle fiscal challenges faced by backdoor/"mandatory" spending (in the form of entitlements).
According to David Mayhew, what do members of Congress do that is “significant,” beyond their roll call votes? Why are these activities important?
Beyond legislating, MCs investigate, take stands (such as attacking the president of one's own party), spur or accomodate "ideological impulses", and lead "oppositions."
These activities matter because they shape American politics/policy beyond the typical realm of a single MC.
What incentives do members of Congress have to delegate discretion to the bureaucracy?
1.Imperfect information: MCs need expertise, and can outsource lawmaking to bureaucrats who have it.
2.Changing conditions: To make policy more easily responsive to real-world changes, Congress can give authority to bureaucrats who then adjust policies in response to those changes.
3.Blame avoidance: MCs cannot be individually blamed for a roll call vote if the unpopular policy is enacted by the bureaucracy.
In what ways does the experience of House Republican leaders in the current depart from our expectations based on conditional party government theory?
Republicans are less unified than they've previously been on some issues (e.g. aid to Ukraine), and they have exacted increasing pressure on Speakers McCarthy and Johnson rather than vice versa.
How does the growth in presidential power in the 20th century relate to Madison’s expectations about how the balance of powers in the U.S. would work? What did Madison get wrong?
Madison expected that Congress would be the most powerful of the three branches, but the executive branch has become increasingly powerful over the past 120 years.
The founders did not anticipate that partisans in Congress would prioritize their party above their branch's power. This shift in priorities has led MCs to tolerate the president's expansions of power when they share his party.
What tools does the new budget process created in 1974 offer to Congress in order to gain greater control of spending and revenue decisions?
The Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 restricted impoundments, created the Congressional Budget Office (to provide Congress with policy information), added budget committees/resolutions, and established the reconciliation process.
What forces are undermining the realm of “significant member actions” (as identified by Mayhew) in the early 21st Century? Why should we care?
The two main forces are 1) declining attention/regard for Congress and 2) a changing institutional environment where committees have less power (and are less suitable for public stances) and polarization increasingly shapes MC behavior.
These developments matters because a) it reduces member autonomy in favor of party teamsmanship, and b) it undermines public deliberation.
How did the 1973 War Powers Resolution impact the balance of war-making power between Congress and the President? Why?
The resolution has not prevented the president from engaging in short-term conflict at all. It may have made the president less likely to pursue long-form conflict without permission, but the president can ameliorate this challenge if Congress passes a general authorization, such as the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Afghanistan.
This is because Congress has limited incentives to go against the president and risk getting blamed for specific war policy. Plus, congressional action is typically requested after troops have already been sent.