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Intro Political Science Notes

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Intro Political Science Notes
As discussed earlier in the semester, the framers of the constitution provided for a bicameral legislature that is a legislative body consisting of two houses, i.e., the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The party with the most elected members of each party is called the majority party. The other party is the minority party. At the present time the Republican Party is the majority party in the House and the Democratic Party is the Majority Party in the Senate.
Differences between the House and the Senate:
Minimum age of members:
House: 25 years, Senate: 30 years
U.S citizenship:
House: 7 years, Senate: 9 years
Number representing each state:
House: 1-53 per state-depends on population. Senate 2
Constituency:
House: local district. Senate: the entire state
Length of term:
House: 2 years, Senate: 6 years.
Total number of members of each house:
House of Representatives: 435 senate: 100

The primary responsibility of a member of congress is to the constituency of her district.
District: the area from which an official is elected.
Constituency: the residents in the elected official’s district.
Two factors related to the U.S electoral system affect who gets elected: (1) incumbency (2) the way congressional district lines are drawn.
(1) Incumbency: holding a political office for which one is running. Members of congress who run for re-election have a very good chance of winning. Supporters of term limits argue that such limits are the only way to get new faces into Congress.
Term Limits: laws that limit the number of terms an elected official can serve. There are no terms limits for members of congress.
(2) The way congressional districts are drawn: every 10 years, state legislatures must redraw election districts (redistricting) pursuant to the national census and redistribute legislative representatives to reflect population changes. Each district is supposed to include approximately 650,000 constituents. This is a highly political
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