GVPT 170 Lecture 8: Congress

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Government and Politics
• Course: GVPT 170
• Professor: kristinamiler

Document Summary

Differences between the house & senate: elections and constituencies. Definition: allocation of house seats to the states after each census. Example: ma went from 14 seats (1950) to 9 (2010) Definition: drawing new boundaries of congressional districts. Responsibility of state legislature in most states, but increasingly calls to make it less partisan process. Definition: drawing boundaries of congressional districts in order to advantage some partisan or political interest. Supreme court effectively ruled against racial gerrymandering, in shaw v. reno (1993) saying. A district creates on no basis other than to include a majority of minorities might raise constitutional questions . Current supreme court position (miller v johnson 1995) Race can be considered but can not be the predominant factor. Parties are generally more important in house elections than in senate elections. Party is the primary cue for voters. Incumbents are elected at very high rates general: 90%+ in house & 80%+ in senate.