Discuss the clash between representation, partisanship, and lawmaking. What tension exists between these functions for our representatives and senators, and what effect does this have on how the public views Congress? What effect does it have on how our government functions?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Students should first discuss the multiple representative functions that representatives and senators provide citizens: policy representation, allocative representation, casework, and symbolic representation. Students should also discuss the appetite the American people have for public policy in the national interest. Because representatives and senators give significant attention toward pleasing their own constituents in representative functions, less time and energy are left for national lawmaking. Further, citizens reward their representatives and senators for these representative functions while also being upset that Congress as a whole is full of members spending time on their own representative functions rather than on national lawmaking (though not blaming their own representatives or senators for doing the same). Additionally, since the mid-1990s, partisanship has again become a fierce divider of the American public. Members of Congress have not been so polarized by party since the Civil War. People running for Congress have little incentive to appeal to more moderate voters, as they used to do. If a hyperpartisan representative wants to keep his or her job and not face a primary-election challenge from a candidate viewed by the party as more ideologically pure, he or she has to pick party over what’s best for the district or the nation. Furthermore, hyperpartisanship can keep important legislation from passing, even if such legislation is necessary for the government to function. This explains citizens’ love–hate relationship with Congress.