representation and lawmaking in congress
...w to get them to do so is the guts of legislative politics. The process can be messy, even ugly. It is not too surprising that Congress bashing is one of the constants of American politics, Congress can be properly evaluated only by understanding our own conflicting expectations about the institution and about the politicians who work within it. To help you begin to sort out your own thoughts about congress, this text begins with a brief introduction to how representation and lawmaking occur in practice on capitol Hill. As we shall see as we investigate congress, achieving both perfect representation and perfect lawmaking, in the ways we desire each of them is impossible. Representation Representation in congress takes several forms. The most obvious type is that provided by each member for his or her district or state. Members of congress are expected to be reprentatives of their constituents back home. but that is not a very precise job description. We might thing of a representative's job as that of faithfull presenting the views of his or her district or state in congress that is o...