“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”, said the Irish political philosopher, Edmund Burke. Through time, the same question has popped up in the American minds: are representatives actually elected to represent us and our best interests, or on the contrary, to perform according to their concerns? In his “Letter to the Electors of Bristol”, Burke argues several controversial points; as an Irish vying for the American territories to continue with virtual representation, why would he also defend their rights as existing colonies? Members of congress (senators as well as representatives of the house) are chosen through a thoughtful process, by the legislature of the United States, or by the Constituency itself. Finally, if these are to break rules or not comply with their job duties, they may be expelled from Congress.
As advocates of the United States of America, congressmen/women choose between two styles of representation: the trustee model (reflects closer to the Senate), or the delegate model (reflects closer to the House of Representatives). The election of these models will depend on the agents’ list of priorities and placement of interests. The first mentioned model consists on a very trustful body of citizens in which full liberty and faith is set on the elected trustee representatives for them to work on the people’s behalf and take deeply into consideration
When looking how effectively a country represents its citizens, it is important to take into account the manner in which they are represented. The two main types of representation are descriptive and agency representation. Descriptive representation is the concept that those who represent the American people should not only have the same political interest, but should also mirror the demographic makeup of the people. Agency representation, which is what the United States congress looks like, is when the representation does not reflect the demographic, but they speak for their constituents’ interests in congress. The constituents are able to hold the representatives accountable and can choose not to elect them in the next term, so the representatives
America had just successfully broken away from Britain and was trying to establish itself as a new nation in the world. The Constitution was still in effect and holding the nation together and giving it boundaries to abide by. Many people had polarized views of the Constitution, some with a strict interpretation and others with a loose interpretation of the Constitution. It is these differing views, therefore, which created various political parties throughout the country. During the early 1800’s, there were many presidential elections with all the candidates looking to fill the rolls of their predecessors, George Washington and John Adams. Each candidate looked to leave a positive lasting impact on the growth and development of the United States. There were multiple candidates for each election, each with varying views on government and different issues to address during each election. The
Adams vs Jefferson, The Tumultuous Election of 1800, describes the events of the infamous United States Presidential Election of 1800, the election that forever changed the landscape of American politics and reestablished the principles of the American Revolution. The election of 1800 was a battle of two political powerhouses: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They were two of America’s founding fathers who were once great friends, but were thrown against each other as adversaries with the future of America in their hands.
The founding Fathers also tried to make the representation equal in the two houses of legislature. However, the makeup of the senate doesn’t agree with this because large states and small states had the same amount of representation rather than the house that has representatives equal to the ratio of the people. While John P. Roche gave his argument that the founding Fathers were best suited for their position, he never gave concrete evidence to support his statement. On the contrary, Howard Zinn gives his opinion that the founding Fathers were not democratic reformers; rather, they were making decisions that protected their power.
The election of 1824 is one of the most unique and interesting elections in American history. The four candidates in the election were William Crawford, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. They were all from the Jacksonian Republican Party.
The election of 1800 was a fight between the democratic-republicans and the federalists party for presidency. It also became the first time in American History where there was a peaceful shift in the political party, from the federalists party to the democratic-republicans party (Jeffersonians). The election of 1800 consists of five candidates, each believing that victory by the other side would ruin their nation. The candidates were, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson in the democratic-republican party, and John Adams, Charles Pinckney, and John Jay in the federalist party;
America’s form of representative democracy came as a result of the transgressions Britain committed against their colonies. Several hundred years of salutary neglect served well for those living an
During the Progressive Era, Americans faced the challenge of choosing between four strong candidates of the election of 1912. Each candidate held concrete platforms that would have different effects on progressivism. Americans could chose the conservative presidential incumbent William Howard Taft(R), the New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson (D), the long-time fighter for social reform-Eugene V. Debs (S), or the former president Theodore Roosevelt of the newly formed Bull Moose Party (Progressive Party). Through this election many steps were taken to change the face of the election
On the other hand, the option to be the voters' trustee implies that the Congress Person take decisions on behalf of their constituents without much consulting. However, regardless of the implied autonomy in the trustee option, the member of Congress is still guided by the best interests of their electorate. The trustee model of representation allows the members to vote against the will of the majority of their support base. However, such instances which might
The previous passage proves that the constitution’s ideal representative that holds some sort of power and status in government need to be educated and wealthy. To sum it up, those who are already in congress are those who decide who’ll be apart of government, and make decisions that will affect our country. This will further create a division amongst classes and tension between the upper and middle class will diverge from one another.
Virtual Representation has been a topic of the colonial era for a great time. During this time the British gave the colonists’ no actual representation in parliament but claimed that they were “virtually
Within a federal republic, such as the United States, we tend to rely on representatives to represent us as a nation rather than us representing the nation. This is due to people’s capacity of knowledge as not everyone can be the best of themselves in every area. Eventually, leading to representatives, who have the knowledge in politics and government, in representing the people of every state. This type of situation is when the people, who are the principals, gives authority to the representative, who are the agents, to represent them. By definition, the principals are those who possess authority and agents are individuals who execute the authority on behalf of the principals (Kernell 29). Although this is common, not many individuals are aware that they are entering a principal and agent relationship. In the United
The article Rethinking Representation, written by Jane Mansbridge, explains how there are three different forms of representation apart from the traditional idea of “promissory” representation. Promissory representation is the traditional model of representation. It focuses on the idea that during a representative’s campaign they make promises to their constituents. During the representative’s time in office, these promises are either kept or not fulfilled. As Mansbridge notes, within the last 20 years there has been three new forms of representation, they are anticipatory, gyroscopic, and surrogate representation.
This written report is appertaining to the book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, written by Lee H. Hamilton. This book is published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IL, it was copyrighted in 2004 by the publisher.
In “Congressional Government”, Woodrow Wilson tries to explain the system of Congress and in it he thoroughly discusses the predominance of Congressional Committees in the legislative body. He argues that our legislature is more analogous to a conglomerate, not a homogenous body and that “we are ruled by a score and a half of ‘little legislatures’”(Wilson p. 323). There is little unity in the House and party organization is not strong according to Wilson. The many distinct, disconnected committees has leads Congress to have weak leadership and therefore decreases decision making. Also Wilson shows how multiple committee jurisdictions creates a system where there is no clear voice on the issue and since committees differ in political ideology broad questions of policy suffer. Lawrence C. Dodd also discusses the committee system in “Congress and the Quest for Power”. In it, he argues that the solution to congressmen’s need for power is a decentralized congress with a committee system that allows members to gain considerable power in their small committees. “Each member wants to exercise power, to make the key policy decisions. … Given this widespread power motive, an obvious way to resolve the conflict is to disperse power”(Dodd p. 335). Dodd argues that the solution to member Congress constantly seeking power is the current