Congress is the most important representative institution in a government. Each member's primary responsibility is to his or her constituency, and not to the congressional leadership, a party, or even Congress itself.
Purpose and Power of Congress
The purpose of the congress is agreed by most, is to legislate for the public interest, the public interest however is not agreed on. The Congress was established by the founders of this country, to be the first and most powerful branch of government. One of the first powers given to the congress was to lay and collect taxes. The agreement was to give such a power to the more common branch of government. The second power was to certify national elections. Third, determine who will replace President or Vice President if both are incapacitated. The last is the power to enforce other amendments through legislation.
Constraints on the Congress
The court noted that in order to forestall the...
The first constraint is that Congress may not invest itself or its members with either executive power or judicial power. The second constraint is when it exercises Legislative power, it must follow the single, finely wrought and exhaustively considered procedures specified in Article I (Bicameralism and Presentment).
Incumbency advantage, Factors and Quality challengers and Donors
The first, and most central, fact we should know about congressional elections is the incumbency advantage. Simply put, what we mean by this is that incumbent members of Congress are at a great advantage when running for reelection.
The first generation of scholarship on congressional elections took two views of why incumbents possessed such an advantage. The first of these views focused on voter behavior. In this research,…
