In 1787, when the Founding Fathers of the United States of America crafted the Constitution – a Constitution which still endures today – they chose for the very first article, not the institution of the President or the Supreme Court, but the US Congress. The Constitution gave Congress the power to make laws for the federal government, the ability to check the actions of the President and the responsibility of representing the American people.

Constitutions are never written in a vacuum. They reflect the beliefs, goals and ambitions of their authors, and in many cases, the values of society. In...

In 1994 the Republican Party led by Newt Gingrich of Georgia in the House and future presidential candidate Bob Dole of Kansas in the Senate celebrated a remarkable victory in the Congressional elections. For the first time since 1955 the Republicans had gained a majority in both chambers of Congress. Indeed it was the first time in that forty-year period that the party had held the House of Representatives at all (see Table 2.1).

Newt Gingrich took much of the credit for the victory. Gingrich was an outspoken conservative who had risen quickly to a position of leadership within the...

Once the November elections are over, the newly elected Representatives and Senators gather the following January for the start of the new Congress. Out of the thousands of hopefuls who started the arduous process of campaigning in the primary and general elections, only 535 people sit as members of Congress for the next two years; 435 in the House and 100 in the Senate. For most of those members, this will not be a new experience; only one-third of the Senate’s seats are up for election at any one time (leaving two-thirds of the Senate to continue their six-year term...

Writing while still a postgraduate student, President Woodrow Wilson commented, ‘Congressional government is committee government’. Committees are the engine rooms of Congress. In order to become law, every piece of legislation must ultimately face a vote in the chambers of House and Senate, but it is in the committee rooms that nearly all proposals take shape and where most proposals die. This chapter examines the role and the power of the committee, the legislators who populate these bodies and discusses whether the committee system as a whole is good for democracy in modern

There is no mention of committees in...

One of the most often overlooked aspects of Congress is the role played by political parties. It is true that parties in the United States are weaker and more fragmented than many of their Western European counterparts. It is also true that the majority of members of Congress cannot rely on their party label alone to assure their election and instead must develop their own platform and reputation. However, it is a fact that since 1945 only a handful of candidates for Congress have successfully gained election without the official endorsement of one of the two major parties. Consequently, parties...

To the general public, the most visible parts of Congress are the debates which take place on the floor of the chambers of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Debates are televised live and can contain moments of great controversy and excitement. The most extreme incident took place during a debate in the chamber of the House of Representatives on 1 March 1954. As a quorum count was taking place of the 243 members present at that time, two men and a woman sitting in the public gallery jumped to their feet, and shouting ‘Free Puerto Rico’, pulled out...

At the heart of the Constitution is the separation of power between the President of the United States and Congress. The President has the roles of chief diplomat, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and, as head of the executive branch, the responsibility for executing the laws passed by Congress. While the President and Congress were given separate powers and responsibilities, the Founding Fathers also ensured that each would be checked by the other.

The President has the power to appoint ambassadors, federal court judges, Supreme Court justices, cabinet members and other top federal posts. Each of these appointments, however, must...

In the previous chapters, the relationship between the voters, parties, the President and members of Congress have been examined. This section looks at two other actors who impact on Congress: the media and interest groups.

The media performs a crucial role in the American political process. The majority of voters will have little or no personal contact with Congress or its members. These voters rely heavily on newspapers, radio, television and the Internet for information about their elected representatives. This position gives the media the potential to influence the political agenda of the nation greatly. It also has opened up...

At first glance, while the nation of the United States of America has changed greatly since the Constitution was written in 1787, the political system has remained remarkably stable. The United States is still a federal system, with its government based on the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers. Congress, the legislative branch of the government, remains a bicameral body, with the differences between its two chambers based upon the principles laid down by the Founding Fathers. However, further investigation of the American political establishment at the beginning of the twenty-first century reveals some significant changes. The role...