1. possibility of divided government between parties

2. frequent elections 

3. powerful congress

4. upper house has a lot of power (senate)

house- larger, less refined than senate, more representative of the people, heavily partisan

senate- smaller and more majestic, less partisan, senate checks the house

the 17th amendment

direct election of senators

1. Do they look like us (descriptive)- yes in religion, but smarter, richer, older than average amercan

(paine)

2. Do they do a good job?- who is best suited for the job

(madison)

representatives should solely represent the ideas of the people, regardless of his own views

in stride with Paine's ideals

elect representatives and once in office trust these representatives to decide what is best 

(less concerned with what the people think, more concerned with what they think is best)

case work

personal request that people call upon you for help

social security check doesn't come in in time

so you tell your rep

they go and hunt down where the money is

rep- 25%

staff-67%

when a rep's party and district are on different sides of an argument 

the party releases the rep from having to vote for the party side, so they can get re-elected by their district

below 50%

ie they don't trust congress very much

pro-tempore

(temporary president)

longest serving senator, mostly ceremonial

house = political

senate = ceremonial

made up of people from the house or made up of people from the senate (all house or all senate committees)

The true LAW-MAKING committees

members from both houses 

very few- on policies

ex- committee on taxation

very temporary don't last long at all

ex- watergate investigation

where either a committee or sub-committee goes through a bill line by line and marks up the bill/revises it 

(this is open to the public)

only in the house

decides what rules the bill will  hit the floor with 

it decides the amount of debate and the amending process for the bill on the house floor

can have lots of debate on the house floor

people pushing for the bill are not very happy about this ruling

and the amendments don't have to be relavent to the topic of the bill (non-germane amendments)

amendments to a bill that don't really have anything to do with the topic of the bill

reps just trying to get their ideas passed

limited debate on the house floor

must be germane amendments (on topic)

24 hs 15 mins

Strong thurmond

how to stop a filibuster

need 60 votes for this

staff is hired based on merit (pres doesn't pick them)

head of departments are picked by the pres

1. Perception of pres (does he seem powerful, respected?)

2. president's political assests (does his party like him)

3. personal skills (good at negotiating? can connect with people?)

1. head of state- symbolic/ceremonial role

2. head of gov- more domestic role, daily activities as pres

1. military power- commander and chief of armed forces 

2. Judicial powers- can pardon and reprieve

3. diplomatic power- pres has power to recieve ambassadors and other foreign ministers (used to acknowledge countries) AND can sign executive agreements

1. executive power

2. military power

3. legislative power

executive power 

of the head of government

has power to make sure laws are faithfully executed (appoints executive officers and federal judges) 

the cabinet and department heads 

military power 

of the head of government

 military power- has power to protect every state against invasion and internal/domestic violence (chooses wether to send troops into a state if a state requests them)

legislative power

of the head of government

1) state of the union

2) veto power- president can veto or pocket bills

-presidential cabinet

-legislative leader

-cooperative relationship with congress

-foreign policy

-wanted to limit power of national gov

-louisiana purchase (all his doing)

-successful as a party leader

-representative of the people

-wanted all the power, wanted to take power from congress

-created the democratic party of the democratic republican party

-expansion of presidential power

-was more free with money, didn't really get permission from congress

-suspends habeous corpus

suspended habeas corpus 

closes the mail to treasonous mail

went over congress

(did this to save the union)

-uses emerging tech to gain support

-bully pulpit

-uses nat gov to regulate economy

-uses every tool that constitution allows him

-bold,activist president

-brings back the state of the union as a speach

-

-1930

-emphasis is that the executive branch is dominant

-institutionalized presidency

-Executive office of the president EOP

EOP

executive office of the president

definition

came about from the brown low report during the new deal

the president needed help

it centralized the presidents power of the executive branch

when pres gets up and lays it all out and says how everything is going to work 

(his attempt to show that he is a true leader)

EOP 

overview

where you find the white house staff/office

hundreds in it

depicted as a wagon wheel

Johnson and Nixon

want to be very powerful, but doesn't work out that way

Ford and Carter

 non anything

when a president is elected and other members of his party are put in congress because the president has public support

(those put in office are called coattails)

when your opinion of the president increase when there is a rallyng event

-best rally= 911

more likely to approve a president during a rally effect

1890- a SC chief justice was almost killed in a small court

Courts of Appeal is created

congress creates it 

allows cases to go to appeals courts and then to supreme court

congress creates the federal district courts

makes a distinction between pellet and original jurisdiction

lifetime tenure

forever on it unless impeached by congress

- have to have broken a civil or criminal federal law

-or if you decide to sue the federal gov

-a case between 2 people from different states (involving $75000+)

-has to be a federal issue

1975

rule of 4- 4 SC justices have to agree to hear it

1%

typically only pick cases that the lower courts can't decide on

the lawyer for the federal gov/US in case someone sues the federal gov

3rd ranking guy in the justice system

1) statutory interpretation- when the court decides what the bills/laws mean. look into history of law

2) constitutional interpretation- judicial review, the court decides what the constitution is saying

1. no self start in SC- have to wait until a case comes to them

2. must be a controversy- no hypothetical cases

3. issue must be right and not moot (cases have a time limit)

4. must be justicable- has to be a legal issue, no political issues

1) starting sticisas- means let the decision stand. court tends to build on precedent don't like to overturn itself

2) has limited remedies- can only approve or disapprove of a situation can't really inforce it

3) affected by the pres and congress

-has to have pres and congress enforce their decisions

-pres enforces (sends in troops (BrownvBoard))

-pres power to choose justices

-congress- can change law

founders thought it would be the most important branch 

legislative branch

organization

count up the votes before a big bill 

help to figure out if a bill is in favor or not etc etc

closed- support bill

open- don't support bill

1. party

2.region

3. socioeconomic background

4- senators

2-congress

regular

continuing

supplemental

johnson 

clinton

appellate courts

responsible for reviewing decisions rendered by 1st tier courts

make more information available 

create transperancy