American Government II: Congress, Presidency, Courts, States, Bureaucracy, Policy

This is Unit Eight of Social Sciences and History, part one of two: American government from Congress's two chambers to the Supreme Court's docket. Unit seven closed on the constitutional frame with the Fourteenth Amendment as its hinge. This part walks the three branches that frame created, and it carries one idea: each branch's working power is not the power the text lists. Congress acts on implied and inherent powers beyond the enumerated ones. The president's real advantage, the anchor says, is not the short list of Article Two but one voice to the nation. And the Court's power to strike a law is stated nowhere in the Constitution; the Court gave it to itself in eighteen oh three. Watch for the gap between the listed power and the working one in each branch. By the end you will be able to say why the House hurries and the Senate waits. To classify a legislator's choice. To put a bill in order. To classify a presidential act. And to trace a case to the Supreme Court and say what judicial review is.

Six entries on Congress's chambers and members: two chambers, three kinds of power, the two tempos, the incumbency advantage, the models of representation, and pork.

Two chambers.

SSH 0701 Two Chambers, 435 and 100

The Constitution made Congress bicameral: a Senate of two members per state, one hundred today, and a House drawn from each state in proportion to population, capped at four hundred thirty-five since nineteen twenty-nine, with apportionment distributing seats by the Census. The Articles' weakness produced the Convention. Bicameralism, the key term, is the politics of two assemblies.

Three kinds of power.

SSH 0702 Enumerated, Implied, Inherent

Enumerated powers are addressed in the text: commerce, armies, war, money, foreign affairs. Implied powers are inferred as necessary to the national government's objectives. Inherent powers are neither, assumed to exist because the country exists. The commerce power grew and the foreign-policy power declined across the twentieth century. Unit seven sorts powers between levels; this triad is Congress's own, and the working power runs past the list.

The two chambers' tempo.

SSH 0703 Why the House Hurries and the Senate Waits

Because reelection is so frequent a need, the House is closest to constituents and more easily led by fleeting public desires; the Senate's distance, six years against two, lets it act more deliberately. Both must raise considerable money, and Congress's attempts to rein in spending have largely failed. Surge-and-decline theory: presidential-year stimulation subsides at the midterm.

Incumbency.

SSH 0704 The Incumbency Advantage

Incumbents have the easiest time funding campaigns and keeping their seats, and they benefit from the way parties organize primaries, which are designed to promote incumbency. The anchor's other constant is money: each representative and senator must raise considerable sums. A constituency is the body of voters a politician represents. Unit nine carries campaigns and elections at length.

Models of representation.

SSH 0705 Delegate, Trustee, Politico: Classifying a Legislator's Choice

The exam describes a legislator's choice and asks which model of representation it fits, and the anchor names three. The delegate model: representatives feel compelled to act on the specific stated wishes of their constituents. The trustee model: representatives feel at liberty to act as they believe is best for their constituents. The politico model: members act as delegate or trustee by rational calculation of who is best served, the constituency or the nation, and most combine the approaches as circumstances demand. Two more senses: descriptive representation, how far the body mirrors constituents in race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class; collective representation, whether Congress as an institution represents the people as a whole. She voted against the bill because the district's mail ran nine to one against it: delegate. He voted for it, believing the district would be better off despite the mail: trustee. She follows the district on local matters and her judgment on foreign policy: politico. The chamber has more women than ever: descriptive. Congress rarely wins approval above forty percent: collective, the anchor's characterization rather than a dated figure. The trap is treating the politico as indecision; the anchor defines it as calculation. The second trap is pork-barrel spending: bringing home favorable allocations was fidelity to constituents before it was reinterpreted as corruption.

Pork and Congress's standing.

SSH 0706 Pork-Barrel Politics and Congress's Standing

Bringing home the bacon, favorable budget allocations, was how representatives showed fidelity; it is now read as corruption, pork-barrel politics. Voters rate their own legislator far higher than the body. Despite the incumbency advantage, Congress as a whole rarely earns approval above forty percent, and for years, the anchor says, well below twenty. The figures are the anchor's undated characterizations.

Three entries on leadership and process: who leads each chamber, a bill's classic path in order, and the modern path of omnibus bills and cloture.

The leadership.

SSH 0707 Speaker, Majority Leader, Whip

The Speaker leads the House and its majority party, second in presidential succession. The Senate's functional leader is the majority leader, with the president pro tempore usually the senior majority senator. Minority leaders direct their parties; whips enforce voting discipline. The majority controls the committees where legislation is written. Standing committees are permanent; select, temporary; joint, investigative.

A bill's path.

SSH 0708 Committee to Floor to Conference: Sequencing a Bill

The exam asks for the order of the classic legislative process, and the anchor gives the chain. A bill is introduced and sent to the appropriate committee. In committee, hearings are held, the bill is debated and marked up, meaning amended and voted on, and sent to the floor. On the floor it is debated and amended until passed or voted down. If passed it moves to the second chamber, where debate and amendment begin anew. If both pass different versions, a conference committee, a special joint committee, reconciles them into one bill. The modern path differs: over recent decades large omnibus measures covering many items pass through the budget process, which empowers leadership at the committees' expense, and Senate filibuster threats have multiplied, with cloture, three-fifths of senators, used to forestall them. Given conference committee, markup, floor debate and introduction, the order is introduction, markup, floor debate, conference. The step that reconciles two chambers' versions is conference. What ends a filibuster is cloture at three-fifths. The trap is placing the second chamber after conference; conference comes only once both chambers have passed something. The second trap is treating the filibuster as a vote; the anchor defines it as extending debate to obstruct or kill.

Oversight and the modern path.

SSH 0709 Oversight, Committees, and the Modern Path

Oversight is Congress's right to review and monitor other bodies. Over recent decades large omnibus bills passed through the budget process have shifted power from committees to leadership, and Senate filibuster threats, met by cloture at three-fifths, have shaped what reaches a vote; markup remains a committee amending and voting. The classic path still describes the exam's sequence question.

Four entries on the presidency: the office the Convention invented, nomination's history, taking office, and the one voice to the nation.

The office the Convention invented.

SSH 0710 The Office the Convention Invented

The Convention debated many forms for the presidency. The president serves at most two four-year terms and can be impeached, charged, and removed. War powers have expanded greatly, often with the legislature's willing help, and radio, television and the Internet enhanced the office's stature. Executive privilege is withholding information from Congress or courts.

Nomination.

SSH 0711 From King Caucus to Primaries

Within a generation of Washington, parties overtook state legislatures' nominating power. At first leaders controlled selection through conventions and the king caucus. By the early twentieth century primaries and caucuses brought selection to the people, and conventions became rubber stamps. Nomination, not the general election, is this section's subject. Unit nine carries the electoral vote question.

Taking office.

SSH 0712 Transition, Confirmation, Agenda

A new president must grasp both the office's powers and their limits: transition smoothly, fill cabinet and court vacancies needing Senate confirmation, set an agenda, and react to events. Time is short; act while the political wind helps. The cabinet is the heads of the fifteen executive departments, and the Executive Office holds the OMB, which writes the budget.

The public presidency.

SSH 0713 The Bully Pulpit and Going Public

Apart from war powers the Constitution gives the president little authority; the real advantage is one voice to the nation. Theodore Roosevelt's bully pulpit grew with twentieth-century technology, and going public is a major address meant to pressure legislators through the public; Eleanor Roosevelt enlarged the first lady's role. Rally around the flag names a popularity spike in crises. Here the working power outruns the listed one.

Four entries on the president's instruments: pardons, orders and agreements, privilege and the signing statement, favorable conditions and their limits, and classifying an act.

Direct action.

SSH 0714 Pardons, Executive Orders, Executive Agreements

Presidents pardon federal convicts unchecked. Executive orders carry the force of law without Congress but lack statutes' permanence. An executive agreement with another country needs no Senate consent, easier than a treaty, which requires ratification, but narrower. The sorting comes later in this lecture. Presidents are limited in driving opinion, the anchor says.

Privilege and the signing statement.

SSH 0715 Executive Privilege and the Signing Statement

Executive privilege is the president's right to withhold information from Congress or courts. A signing statement accompanies a signed bill to shape its enforcement. The line-item veto, created by law in nineteen ninety-six, was struck by the Supreme Court in nineteen ninety-eight; governors keep a line-item veto and the president does not. The anchor gives dates, not the case.

Favorable conditions.

SSH 0716 Conditions That Help a President, and Their Limits

Favorable conditions can help a president move policy: party control of Congress, and crises such as war or economic decline that rally support. Even the most favorable conditions do not guarantee success, some presidencies have shown: a crisis and a friendly Congress, and still a failed program. The anchor's example presidencies are not named here.

Classifying a presidential act.

SSH 0717 Order or Law? Classifying a Presidential Act

The exam describes a presidential act and asks what instrument it is. An executive order is a rule issued without Congress that has the force of law but lacks a statute's permanence. An executive agreement is an international agreement made by the executive without formal Senate consent, easier than a treaty but narrower. A treaty requires Senate ratification. A pardon absolves a federal conviction and needs no one's approval. A signing statement accompanies a signed bill to influence its enforcement. A veto rejects a passed bill; a line-item veto exists for governors, not the president. Executive privilege withholds information. The president directing every agency to change a practice, citing no statute, is an executive order. The president and a foreign leader settling a fishing dispute without the Senate is an executive agreement. The Senate ratifying a pact by two-thirds is a treaty. The president signing a bill and declaring one section would not be enforced is a signing statement. The president refusing to hand a memo to a committee is executive privilege. Ask whether the act rules, binds abroad, forgives, comments, or withholds. The trap is durability: an order can be undone by the next president or by a statute, which is why the anchor calls it less permanent. The second trap is scope: an agreement is easier than a treaty and narrower.

Six entries on the judiciary: why a common-law judiciary matters, the dual system, three federal tiers, lifetime tenure, judicial review, and how a case reaches the Court.

Why a common-law judiciary matters.

SSH 0718 Why a Common-Law Judiciary Matters

The framers prized an independent judiciary in a common-law system, where judges develop the law through case decisions largely built on precedent, stare decisis, relying on past decisions. They could not foresee the courts' role in interpreting the Constitution, shaping policy, and preserving and expanding individual rights. Civil law concerns private rights and remedies; criminal law, harm and punishment.

The dual system.

SSH 0719 Two Court Systems, One Top

The United States has a dual court system, federal and state, with the Supreme Court at the top. Each level has its own jurisdiction; each has trial and appellate courts, original jurisdiction hearing a case first and appellate reviewing it. No two state systems are alike, which multiplies chances to be heard and risks uneven treatment. Fifty state systems, one federal.

The federal tiers.

SSH 0720 District, Circuit, Supreme

Congress largely built the three-tier federal system: district courts, where cases are tried and evidence heard; courts of appeals, also called circuit courts, which review district decisions; and the Supreme Court. Reliance on precedent keeps the system stable while letting it evolve slowly. The docket lists cases pending on a court's calendar, and senatorial courtesy consults a state's senators before a nomination.

Lifetime tenure.

SSH 0721 Lifetime Tenure and Surprised Presidents

Presidents hope their judicial nominees will rule as they lean, but lifetime tenure frees judges to act as they see fit, and perfect alignment is not expected; a judge may be liberal on most issues and conservative on others. Presidents have sometimes been surprised, the anchor says: Eisenhower by Warren, Reagan by Kennedy. Historical presidents are named as the record.

Judicial review.

SSH 0722 Marbury and Judicial Review

Judicial review is the courts' power to review the other branches' and the states' actions and rule on their constitutionality. Marbury against Madison in eighteen oh three established it, the first time the Supreme Court held an act of Congress unconstitutional. The Constitution never states the power in words. Unit seven's frame places the courts. Here the working power has no listed power behind it at all.

How a case reaches the Court.

SSH 0723 Certiorari, the Rule of Four, and the Docket

A writ of certiorari calls up a lower court's records so the Supreme Court may review the case, and by the Rule of Four, four justices suffice to hear it. Law clerks, the solicitor general, interest groups and the media influence which cases are taken and how they are decided. Nine justices sit, a chief and eight associates, and the Court's proceedings are never filmed.

Look at what you can now do. You can say the House hurries because reelection is two years away and the Senate waits because it is six, and that primaries and money keep incumbents in. You can classify a legislator's choice as delegate, trustee or politico, and tell descriptive representation from collective. You can put a bill in order, introduction, markup, floor, second chamber, conference, and name cloture at three-fifths as what ends a filibuster. You can classify a presidential act by whether it rules, binds abroad, forgives, comments or withholds. And you can trace a case from district to circuit to certiorari and the Rule of Four, and say that judicial review, the Court's greatest power, is stated nowhere in the text, which is the gap this lecture followed through all three branches. Part two opens on argument and opinions, then carries activism and restraint, the states, the bureaucracy and policy to a policy through three branches.