2.3

• Congressional behavior is influenced by ideological divisions
• Liberals & conservatives


  Represent two different ideologies
• Party polarization


  • Republicans become more conservative & democrats become more liberal
  • The more the parties are polarized, the less their ideas overlap on what is good for the nation
  • Difficult to negotiate & compromise
• Gridlock


  • No congressional work done due to a lack of consensus
  • Usually impedes the process of congressional work
  • Better to have the same house be majority in Congress
• Divided government


  Opposing houses hold majority
• Models of Congressional Behavior


  • Delegate Model: Must vote with the will & interests of their constituents
  • Trustee Model: Entrusted with the people's approval & must vote accordingly to the representative's conscience or judgment
  • Politico Model: Hybrid of the two models
• Redistricting


  1. Every 10 years based on the Census, congressional districts are redrawn to reflect population changes

  2. Baker vs Carr (1962): In Tennessee, the work have redrawing districts had not been done properly which can become chaotic, rural voters had a lot more voting power & urban voters

  3. Argued that this was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause

  4. Resulted in the one person, one vote doctrine

  5. Redistricting had to be done so everyone's vote was equally powerful
• Gerrymandering


  • Districts are redrawn to benefit one party
  • Shaw vs Reno (1993): Two congressional districts in North Carolina were drawn weirdly in order to give more voting power to African Americans
  • Redrawing districts solely by race could also be used to disenfranchise minority voters