POL_S 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Kyoto Protocol, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Document Summary
Members of congress are centrally motivated by re-election: the electoral connection. Members of the house re-elected every two years. Voters are typically not informed enough to monitor their representatives. However, members of congress behave as if voters were fully informed, because any issue might become salient in the next election. Speaker of the house: elected leader of the house. Majority leader: elected leader of the party holding the majority of seats. Minority leader: elected leader of the party holding minority of seats. Whip system: information gathering, information dissemination, coalition building. Majority leader: elected leader of the party with a majority of seats. Second in command is the assistant majority leader. President pro tempore: symbolic position that presides over the house if the. Vice president is the president of the senate. Whip system: not as extensive as in the house. Head of state: executive powers and authority over the executive branch. Appointments: over 8,000 positions, 1,200 require senate approval.
