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the system of having two chambers within one legislative body like the HOuse and Senate in the U.S. congress |
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legislative appropriations that benefit specific constituents, created with the aim of helping local representatives win reelection |
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an inability to enact legislation because of partisan conflict within Congress or between congress and the president |
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the idea that congressional behavior is centrally motivated by members' desire for reelection |
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When a member of congress shares teh charcteristics (like gender, race, religion,, or ethnicity) of his or her constituents |
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descriptive representation |
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when a member of congress represents consitutents' interests and policy concerns |
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substantive representation |
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a member of Congress who represents constituents interests wh9ile also taking into account national, collective, and moral concerns that sometimes cause the member to vote against the preference of a mjority of constituents |
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a member of congress who loyaly repesents consitutents' interests |
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a member of congres who acts as a delegate on issues taht constituents care about and as a trustee on more complex or less salient issues |
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redrawing the geographic boundaries of legislative districts. This happens every ten years to ensure that districts remain roughly equal in population |
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the process of assigning the 435 seats in the House to the states based on increases or decreases in state populations |
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attemtping to use the process of redrawing district boundaries to benefit a political party, protect incumbents, or change the population of minority voters in a district |
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the relative infrequency with which members of congress are defeated in their attempts for reelection |
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assistance provided by members of congress to their consituents in solving problems with the federal bureacracy or addressing other specific concerns |
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the acceptance of credit by a member of congress for legislation that specifically benefits his constituents |
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any public statement in which a member of congress makes her views on an issue known to her constituents |
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the informal congressional norm of distributing the benefits of legislation in a way that serves the interests of a s many states and districts as possible |
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the informal congressional norm whereby a member votes for a bill that he might not otherwise support because a colleague strongly favors it--in exchange for the colleague's vote for abill that the members feels strongly about (also known as logrolling) |
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federally funded local projects attached to bills passed through congess |
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the expertise of a member of congress on a specific issue or area of policy. specialization is more common in the house than the senate, where members tend to be policy generalists |
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the informal congressional norm of choosing the member who has served the longest ona particular committee to be the commiitee chair |
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the elected leader of the house of representatives |
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the elected head of the party holding the majority of seats in the house or seante |
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an organzation of house leaders who work to disseminate information and promote party unity in voting on legislation |
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the elected head of the party holding the minority of seats in the house or senate |
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a largely symbolic position usually held by the most senior member of the majority party in the seante |
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a recorded vote on legislation; members may vote yes, no, abstain, or present |
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a vote in which the majoirty of one party opposes the position of the majority of the other party |
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the extent to which members of congress in the smae party vote together on party votes |
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committees that are a permanent part of the house or senate structure, holding more importance and authority than other committees |
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commiitees in the house or senate created to address a specific issue for one or two terms |
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committees that contain members of boht the house and senate but have limited auhtority |
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temporary committees created to negotiate differences between the house and senate versions of a piece of legislation taht has passed through both chambers |
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teh idea that members of congress will join committees that best serve the intrests of their district and that committee members will support each other's legislation |
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the idea that having committees in congress made up of experts on specific policy areas helps to ensure well nformed policy decisions |
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one of the steps through which a bill becomes a law, in which the final wording of the bill is determined |
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the president's rejection of a bill that has been passed by congress. a veto can be overridden by a two thirds vote in both the house and senate |
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the automatic death of a bill passed by the house and senate when the president fails to sign the bill in the last ten days of a legislative session |
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large bills that often cover several topics and may contian extraneous, or pork barrel projects |
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one way of moving a piece of legislation to the top of the agenda in the house: debate on the bill is limited to forty minutes, amendments are not allowed, and the bill must pass by a two thirds vote |
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a procedure through which the senate can limit the amount of time spent debating a bill (cutting off a filibuster),if a supermajority of sixty senators agree |
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a tactic used by senators to block a bill by continuing to hold the floor and speak--under the seante rule of unlimited debate--until the bill's supporters back down |
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conditions placed on a legislative debate by the house rules committee prohibiting teh addition of amendments to a bill |
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conditions placed on alegislative debate by the house rules committee allowing the addition of relevant amendments to a bill |
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conditions placed on a legislative debate by the house rules committee allowoing certain amendments to a bill while barring others |
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a form of oversight in which congress overturns buereacractic decisions |
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