1. Capitol Hill in DC
2. World of the District

Almost all  incumbents run for re-election

Almost all win 

where members relate to constituents 

• representing congress 
• Power of Incumbency – almost all incumbents are re-elected (90% approx)

1)   name recognition and relevant experience

2)   money

3)   campaign organization

4)   time – challengers run “compressed campaign.” 

Powers/ Advantages of

Congressional Incumbency

• Name recognition
• Relative Experience
• Money
• Campaign Organization
• Time (challengers run a "compressed campaign")

• Experienced politicians make strategic/”rational” decisions about when to run for higher office
• Potential campaign contributors make strategic decisions about when and whom to contribute
• Appearance of incumbent invincibility à deters potential strong challenger

• Self-fulfilling prophecy

-- “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.” 

Name Recognition, service record, and "single minded seekers of re-election"

1. Advertising

2. Credit Claiming

3. Position Taking

Advertising

(Mayhew's continuous Campaign)

Members efforts to get their names and themselves in front of constituents in a positive light 

franking privilege-free postage

Trips home

Credit Claiming

Mayhew's Continuous Campaign

Members who claim personal responsiblity for moving govt to do things for the district and constituents.

• Pork Barrel Legislation
• Case Work
• Position Taking 

Credit Claiming:

Pork Barrel Legislation

•  legislation that provides memebers of congress with federal projects and programs  
• for their individual districts
• (Grants and $)
• These have concenetrated benifits with dispersed costs

Credit Claiming

Case Work

Position Taking

Mayhew's Continuous Campaign

• Take the "right position"
• Cast the "right vote" on matters important to the district

• ex: Tobacco Subsidies 

Representation/Responsiblity 

of Congress

Familiar criticism of congress is against members pursuit of particular benefits 

• Members always tempted to overproduce, especially if primary concern is re-election

Targeted at constitutents....memebers pursuit of this is critizied:

Programs, Projects, Earmarks, ($), tax breaks 

Earmarks, Tax Breaks, Pork Barreling

Each Member pursues rational individual productive strategy

collective irresponsibly

• Complex Legislative Process
• 5000 Bills a Year
• 2 chambers
• 535 Members

• Majority Party in house and senate
• controls major leadership positions
• Traffic Cops (address potential coordination problems)
•  schedule floor business 
• coalition builder meaning they persuade others

Informal Congressional Norms

(Rules of Behavior)

• Respect
• Institutional Loyalty
• Reciprocity
• Log Rolling 

• Speaker of the house
• Majoirty leaders in House and Senate
• Minority Leaders in House and Senate

• Presiding officer of the House of Representatives
• Elected at beginning of each congressional session on a party-line vote
• have substantial control over the legislative agenda of the house

• Formal Leader of the Party Controlling the Majority of Seats in House or Senate 

• Senate-head of the majority party
• House- Rank second in the party hierarchy behind the speaker

• Formal Leader of the party controlling a minority of seats in House or Senate

Puts a rule on a law before it goes to the floor

• add time limits, allow or forbid amendments

• Disappearance of conservative dems in the South and of Conservative Coalition

• Replaced by Republicans, died off or changed parties 

• Ideological Homogeneity within each party
• Ideological Divergence between parties

• Party Leaders tend to be STRONGER
• greater SPECIALIZATION
• more limits on floor debate and amendments
• 2 year terms

• 6 Year Terms

• Tactic used by Senate to Halt Actions on a Bill
• Involves making longer speeches until majority retreats
• Delay legislature form being passed 
• Senate rules say 3/5 of senators must vote for it to halt as a filibuster

• Parliamentary Procedure used to close a debate
• Senate use it to cut off filibusters. Under current Senate Rules , 3/5 senators must vote for it to halt a filibuster

needs 60 senators to vote

Rossiter's Presidency Roles and Responsibilites

Constitutional

Extra Constitutional

Constitutional

Roositers Presidential Roles and Responsibilities 

• Commander in Chief- given in the consitution and denotes president as head of national military
• Veto Powers
• Treaty Signings
• Ambassador
• Chief of State
• Chief Executive 
• Chief Diplomat
• Chief Legislator 

Extra Constitutional

Roositer's Presidential Roles and Responsibilities

Has jobs not listed in the constitution

• Chief of Political Party
• Manager of the Economy
• Voice of People
• Protector of Peace (Hurricane Katrina, Domestic tranquility)
• World Leader

1. Savior Model
2. Satan Model
3. Samson

Savior Model

Conceptions/models of Presidency 

1940's-1960's

• Heoric, Superman, textbook Model
• emphasis  persona bias of presidential power
• ability to command is limited
• must good at PERSUADING & BARGAINING

Professional Reputation, trustworthy, public prestige, skillful tenacious 

Satan Model

Conceptions/models of the presidency 

Late 1960's to Early 1970's

• Presidency is STRONG which = Dangerous
• Product of Vietnam and Watergate
• Pathological Personality (Barbers Presidential Characters)

Samson Model

Conceptions/models of the presidency 

Late 1970's

• Presidency is WEAKENED = bad?
• Product of Ford and Carter Administrations because they didn't do anything

Seen as Weak

1. Power of Persuation
2. Professional Reputation
3. Public Prestige 

Power of Persuasion: 

Public Prestige:

Kernells Going Public Strategy:

Why/ How its rise?

• Govt is now about indivudailzed pluralism
• not insitutionalized
• bargaining with congress is hard in a divided govt
• new technology makes going public easier

Character

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism

how they orient themselves to life

vital factor of self esteem

Political Style

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism

The presidents habitual way of performing his 3 political roles:

1. rhetoric
2. personal relations
3. homework

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism:

4 Types of Personality Types

1. Active Positive
2. Active Negative
3. Passive Positive
4. Passive Negative

Active Positive

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism

• Invest Energy
• Enjoy the Job
• High Self Esteem
• Relate Well
• Flexible 
• Bug Goals

Active Negative

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism

a lot of work, gets little satisfaction

• intense effort
• dont enjoy the job
• can become compulsive and make presidency a struggle
• can get fixated on failed public policy

Passive Positive

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism

Considered most Desirable

does little work but feels satisfied 

Ex:Reagan

Passive Negative

Barber's Treatment of Presidential Personality and Criticism

Considered most dangerous

does little in politics and doesn't even enjoy it

Ex: Eisenhower

• Power of the Court to declare laws of Congress
• Actions of the president as un-constitutional

Ex: Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

Court gave itself power of Judical Review

• By Justice Marshall
• Jefferson didn't challenge this 

1. Judicial Supremacy
2. Coordinate Construction

Most Common in the U.S. Court

• US court should have Final Say
• Separation of Powers requires an arbitrary
• fight against tyranny of the majority
• minorities need protection 

Interoperation should come from DIALOGUE from the THREE BRANCHES

• Court makes mistakes; this way there is LESS power to ONE institution that is NOT democratic
• unelected elite can't safeguard liberty and minority rights
• weak institutions has neither the purse or the sword
• relies on executive branch to enforce decisions 

1. Strict Constructionist View
2. Judicial Activist View
3. Original Intent

Strict Constructionist View

Courts Interoperation of Constitution 

• Justices should confine themselves to LITERAL language of the constitution
• "Original Intent" of the framers
• Meaning should be STABLE and UNCHANGING
• language and words aren't self defining
• What about modern issues and post framers amendments? 

Judicial Activist View

Court Interpretation of Constitution 

• Justices must promote principles and rights they BELIEVE  underline an EVOLVING constitution
• MEANING must EVOLVE and CHNAGE because it is a living document

Original Intent

Court Interpretation of Constitution

• What Framers intended by the constitution
• we don't know who the framers are

Activist Supreme Court at Work:

1. Griswold vs. Connecticut (1965)
2. Roe vs. Wade (1973)
3. Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992)

Griswold vs. Connecticut (1965)

Activist Supreme Court Cases

Allowed Contraception

• Court acknowledges a right to marital privacy
• 1,4,5,and 9 amendments were thought to suggest privacy 

Roe vs. Wade (1973)

Activist Supreme Court Cases

allowed abortion to protect mothers health and prenatal life. allowed until baby can potentially live outside mothers womb

• Court Struck down Texas Law Prohibiting Abortion
• Extended to privacy rights to include limited right to an abortion
• turned 14th amendments guarantee of liberty in "due process" clause
• tradeoff between liberty/ privacy and order/life put trimester limits on abortions

challenged Roe v. Wade

Only thing that changed is you don't have to notify spouse in PA.

• States can limit/restrict abortion if doesn't pose "undue burden:
• need parental permission
• 24 waiting period
• no trimester limits 

• A complex structure of offices, tasks, and rules 
• employees have specific responsiblities and work within a hiearchy of authority.
• In govt they are charged with implementing policies 

• Americans Dislike bureaucrats
• Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year
• most federlal beuracracts work in Washingon D.C.
• Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient and always mired in red tape

1. Going Native
2. SOPS
3. Iron Triangles
4. Congress as "Competing Principle"

• Once appointed to a bureaucray (even initally) loyal officials go off and "marry the natives"
• becoming agents of their departments or bureaus instead of the president 

SOP's

• A stable mutually beneficial political relationship among a congressional committee (or sub committee) administrative agency and organized interests
•  concerned with a particular policy domain

• Competes with the president for bureaucratic control
• creates and abolishes departments and agencies
• can transfer their functions
• has "the power of the purse"
• engages in oversight
• senate must confirm presidential appointees

• Drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party a disproportionally large share of seats for the share of votes if its candiates win
• may happen if one party controls both the legislature and govern-ship

Canidate Centered Campaigns

• Where the advertising and theme of the campaign is the candidate himself
• not the party of the ussyes
• started with the democrats-lead to collective action problems 

• presidents right to withhold info from congress and the courts
• president assert this right, nowhere mentioned in the constitution is necessary to maintain seperation of powers amount the branches of government

• A presidential directive to an executive agency
• establishing new policies  or indicating how exisiting policy is to be carried out

• collection of agencies that help the president oversee deparemtnet and agency afcitivies
• formulate budgets and monitor spending
• craft legislation and lobby congress

• highest advisor body to the president on military and dipolmatic issues
• established in 1947
• in the EOP- helps coordinate the actions of govt agencies into a single cohesive policy for dealing with other nations

• agency in the EOP
• serves as the presidents personal staff system
• personal advisors that oversee the political policy interest of the administration

• created in 1921 formally known as Bureau of Budget
• advisies the president on fiscal and economic policies
• creates the annual federal budget
• monitors agency performance

• presidential directive requiring that all executive agencies proposals, reports, and recommendations to congress
• mostly in form of annual reports
• must be certified by the OMB and consistent with president's policy

• Describe government when one political party controls the executive branch
•  the other political party controls one or both houses of legislature 

• Voting for candidates of different parties for different offices 
• (weakens parties)

•  Common metaphor for the capacity of a successful presidential candidate to generate votes for other candidates further down the ticket and 
• pull fellow partisans into office