- Identify and explain the organization of the Legislature. America is structured as a bicameral legislature which is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate portion of the this bicameral legislature is allowed only two congressmen per state and the House of Representatives contains about 435 members total. Depending on the population in each state it determines the total number of people in the House of Representatives in which they are divided among the states. The senate is is technically led by the vice president who is currently Joe Biden and the House of Representatives is led by the speaker of the house who is currently John Boehner.
- Identify and provide an example of the powers of the Legislature, both formal and informal. The powers of the legislature are both formal and informal for the reason that the legislature was given these formal powers when the first article of the US constitution was created. The informal powers of the legislative branch derive from the Necessary and Proper Clause which grants congress the ability to make any choice necessary to run the country and make it more effecient. An example of the formal powers that the legislature has is the veto power. An example of the informal powers the legislature has is the ability for them to create price floors and price ceilings because it qualifies for the Necessary and Proper Clause.
- Identify and explain how Congress shares powers with the Executive, Judiciary, and bureaucracy. The powers that congress shares with the Executive branch are the powers to make laws and to declare war when necessary. They also have the power to veto which is when they cancel or postpone each others decisions. Congress and the Judiciary branch work together by simply creating and reviewing laws made by legislation. The way that congress shares their powers with the bureaucracy is that when congress passes out a law the bureaucrats are the ones who act out those laws and help to reform them by creating other policies to make the law more effecient. The powers of congress goes all around the structure of government in order to establish equal power among them.
- Discuss the implications of Congress sharing powers with each of the following: Executive, Judiciary, and bureaucracy. The implications of congress sharing powers with the Executive, Judiciary, and Bureaucracy is showing the fact that their is an equal balance of power in the government. This goes back all the way when the checks and balances was created. It was created so that there is an equal amount of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government so that their wasn't one branch with too much power. Each branch could put the others in check in order to keep a balance in the government. The bureaucracy is not really affected by the checks and balances but the bureaucracy is under the control of congress and the president. Congress gives bureaucratic agencies the power to write specific rules. An example of some of the bureaucratic agencies are the EPA, FDA, and the NRA.
- Discuss the functions that Congress performs. The main functions that congress performs are lawmaking, oversight, helping constituents, educating the public and of course represent the people of America. Congress needs to vote on laws that will benefit the people of the country to show that they are for the people. They make difficult decisions on many bills that come close to becoming a law and their effort in this decision making process is admired by the people. Their main function is lawmaking in which they impose a bill that in their hope will get passed and put fourth for the country.
- Identify how the power of the Congress has/may evolve gradually. The powers of congress are gradually decreasing as some of their powers hame become taken away from them and that their other powers are becoming more weak over time. Congress used to have the power to declare war when necessary and now it has been given to the Executive branch. The powers of congress are not evolving but rather deteriorating because it is becoming harder and harder for them to even pass a law or override a veto. It's becoming very inconvenient for congress to perform their duty in government when they are becoming more weak due to their polarized structure.
- Identify how the power of the Congress has/may changes dramatically as a result of crisis. In the time of a crisis congress will not be of any use when the time arises because they move at a slow pace when their is so little time. Congress is growing more weak and it has become more difficult for them to pass laws and make other decisions due to their structure. In a time of a crisis we need to act fast and impose laws or actions that will quickly resolve the situation. Usually in a crisis we look to the Executive branch because they work fast and can get things done more efficiently than congress. For example in the 1929 stock market crash president Hoover issued the Reconstruction Finance Corps which granted federal aid to the banks to help and recover the economy.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Congress and political parties. Congress is a bicameral legislature in which they are composed of Democrats(liberals) and Republicans(conservatives), these are the two main political parties that are representing congress. With these two different parties in congress it makes it hard for them to make or pass laws because of their opposing views. One of the biggest issues is that the Democrats and Republicans are just about equally distributed in congress which is why it always comes so close when is comes to passing a law. Another word for the mixed political parties in congress is that they are polarized meaning that they have both opposing parties in the same unit(congress).
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Congress and interest groups. Interest groups are the people that typically aid congress by informing them on what important things should get listed on their agenda. The interest groups work to change public policy and also perform direct lobbying in which they gather information from the people and present it to congress so that they could influence them to change certain policies and reform. It is good for congress to pay attention to the interest groups because they control a majority of the voters and it helps them to know the peoples interests.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Congress and media. Congress and the media have a lot of tension between them because the media seeks to influence the public by giving them false information about the government that will make them look bad. The media usually focuses on the important things or anything that has to do with the corruption of the government. They connect the people with the government so it allows them to establish a relationship with them which might encourage an increase in political efficacy in the people. Congress is sometimes discouraged by the media as they often target the corrupt congressmen. This is why they call the media the watchdog agency because they watch and report when the congress is getting too corrupt or when the houses are getting in a gridlock.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Congress and state and local governments. The ties between congress, state, and local governments is that the congress and the state governments are usually related through the act called redistricting, which is the separation of the states with district boundaries that determine the number of representatives due to the population. Congress and local governments focus more on the people in their district also known as constituents. Local governments focus more on their own people because they are in their own district and they are responsible for them. People who work for the city can act as a linkage institution in which they connect the people to their government or centralized authority.