To prepare for the exam, you should read through the blog assignment on term limits for legislators. You should be familiar with my post, the articles I link to, and the comments of your colleagues. In terms of material covered in class, you should be familiar with all of the material on legislatures, as well as all of the material on governors (all from the third set of lecture notes), and all the material on the bureaucracy (from the fourth set of lecture notes). Both sets of lecture notes were distributed in class and are also on the blog. Specifically, from class, you should be familiar with:
The reasons people run for the legislature.
The different types of representation people expect from legislators.
The professionalization of the legislature.
Legislative norms and cue voting.
Committees in the legislature.
Gerrymandering and multimember districts.
The increased power of governors.
The line item veto, including its variations, and arguments for and against it.
Why governors have a harder time getting reelected than do other officials.
The reasons for the growth of bureaucracy.
The general characteristics of bureaucracy.
The problems and good points with bureaucracy.
The ways in which elected officials control bureaucracy.
I will have my usual office hours on Monday and Wednesday in case you want to ask questions. You can also email them to me at the email address on the syllabus. Finally, you can use the comments section on this thread for questions. You'll then be able to ask your questions on the blog and read my answers to questions from other students in the class (this really has worked for people!). Emailed and blog questions must be submitted by 11 pm on Tuesday. Good luck!
The reasons why leg. run for office are the following reason: resume boaster, in force a positive change, a stepping stone, power, money, and prestige, right? Dr. NB could you expand on this if needed?
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty good, except it's resume booster, not boaster.
DeleteWhat we expect form rep. are the following:
ReplyDeleteA) Policy rep- hard to evaluate-look to other form of rep.-how you leg. voting
B) Pork barrel- as much as possible (Robert C Byrd) Daniel Flood, rep was not friendly but got re-elected over and over due ability bring home em. leg.
C) Case work- Rep people back home to get people help with medicaid and medicare
D) symbolic rep-makes people feel like they have a voice
Dr. NB could you expand if needed, please?
A. The key is that it's hard to evaluate because people don't know how their rep voted on most things. B. It's bringing home the money from the capital. C. or anything else with the bureaucracy. D. Yeah.
DeleteThroughout the past thirty years the legislature has become more professionalize mainly due to a couple reason: technology, more professional have been elected (lawyers, doctors, people with a MBA), and if mistakes are made in the legislative process it could cost the tax payers a lot of money. If anything else that could be expanded Dr. NB I would appreciate further explanation, please?
ReplyDeleteMeasures of professionalization include number of lawyers, length of session, pay for legislators, size of staff, and quality of facilities.
DeleteLegislative norms have occurred in the legislative bodies because when a Representative is elected he or she needs to respect the institution? However, the legislature when back home can rip the body. Cue voting occurs when a legislator usually follows a person who has been in office longer than he or she has been. Also, the respect for the body and cue voting are linked when a person may need to get a piece of legislation passed he or she needs support. One day you may need others for help and they may need your help, therefore a sign of respect is needed. Also most southern states vote for wheat subsidies and the Midwest states vote for tobacco and cotton subsides.
ReplyDeleteThis one is kind of confused. Legislative norms are the informal rules that help the legislature to function. These include apprenticeship/seniority, reciprocity, specialization, and courtesy. Courtesy involves respect for both individuals and the institution. As you indicate, an exception is you can trash the institution when campaigning for reelection. Cue voting is due to legislators having to vote on all sorts of stuff at the end of a session (dozens of bills all at once). They can't know everything about everything, so they take advantage of the norms of reciprocity and specialization and look to others for cues on how to vote. They want someone who thinks like they do but actually knows about the bill (usually someone from their party and their part of the state).
DeleteCommittees in legislature are assigned to legislators who have experience in the field. Lawyers legal committees, MBA people go to finance, Education goes education committee assignments. Also, committee members rely of others who are elected in the same districts. Mon county members will be divided into different committees and therefore rely on their members on how to vote. Committees are were the law are made. West Virginia del. get assigned to three committees, whereas sen. get assigned to six. Dr. NB when you have time could you expand on this, please?
ReplyDeleteNot sure what there is to expand upon.
DeleteGerrymandering occurs because the census happens every ten years and therefore lines are drawled to elected office party in the state house who can protect their own party. Other gerrymandering occurs to rectify racial harms that have happened in the past. African Americans, who normally align with the Democratic party, where given three districts in the State of Georgia whereas the rest of the districts went to the suburban white voters, who normally align with the Republican party. This forms of Gerrymandering has been uphold by the US Supreme Court. Member districts where not up healed. I may have some of this wrong but could explain where I am wrong Dr NB, please?
ReplyDeleteAs you note, district lines are drawn every 10 years after the census (so that population in each district is equal). Gerrymandering is the drawing of lines to favor one group over another. This is legal if done to favor one party or to favor incumbents generally. It is illegal if done to reduce the power of a geographically concentrated minority group. The courts have given mixed rulings on whether it is legal to draw lines to increase the power of a geographically concentrated minority group.
DeleteThe increased power of the Governors have been expanded due to professionalism . Gov. are CEO's now. Most States also have constitutional amendments mandating that they need to balance their budgets, therefore the Gov. are needed. If I wrong could you help and expand on this comment Dr. NB please?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what your question is here. Governors have increased in power, especially budget power, appointment power, tenure potential, and veto power. The part about almost all states requiring a balanced budget is not relevant to that. It helps to explain, however, why the line item veto in the states isn't used more than it is (because governors already receive a balanced budget, so they don't use the line item veto to cut a deficit).
DeleteIs this all we should know about their increased powers?
DeleteBesides what I wrote in response to Mr. Wakim's question, you should certainly know that the one thing (as I said in class) that you remember about governors is that they have been transformed from back-slapping, baby-kissing figureheads into professional people with both ability and power ("Goodbye to Goodtime Charlie").
DeleteLine item veto are given to governors in order to enable most governors the ability to balance a budgets. a reduction veto is given to the gov. to reduce the a bill that is appropriated say $100,000 given to art center, the gov. can reduce the art bill by $30,000. I believe all but one gov. in the country have the veto and some have reduction veto and only one gov in wi has or had the strongest veto power? Could you expand on this Dr. NB when you have time?
ReplyDeleteOnly one US President had a line item veto and that was Pres. Bill Clinton.US Supreme Court struck it down making his ability or any other president to use it. Only a constitutional amendment now can grant this power to any other president, which will not happen in the near future.
Deleteok
DeleteAs for the line item veto itself, you have the basic idea above about the reduction item veto (a power held by 11 governors, including WV's). All 50 governors have veto power, 43 have some form of the line item veto, and just the governor of Wisconsin used to have the so-called "Vanna White" veto (where you could veto any word, letter, number, space, or punctuation mark). You should also focus on the material on the arguments for and against the line item veto, its effects in the states, and how that might translate to the national level if the president had that power.
DeleteDr. NB, could you explain the arguments that are for or against line item veto and its effects in the states and how it may translate? I think I understand how hurt the government at a national level, but not sure.
DeleteThanks!
Hard to replicate that much of lecture in a blog comment. Main arguments for the line item veto are that it allows the executive (representing all) to curb wasteful, pork barrel spending that legislators put in a bill to help get themselves reelected, and that, because they know it will get vetoed, legislators become more responsible about not putting stuff like that in bills. Arguments against are that it gives too much power to the executive (governor in the case of the states), and that legislators will actually be less responsible. Studies show that the regular line item veto has very little impact in the states; the reduction item veto helps to slow the rate of growth for some types of pork barrel spending (like highway spending) in the states. Some argue that, at the national level, the line item veto would have a greater effect because the national budget has deficits (which a president could reduce with the line item veto). Others argue it would have less of an effect at the national level because so much of the federal budget is "mandatory spending" that couldn't be vetoed.
DeleteDr. NB, I am a bit confused on the dfference between the line item veto and the reduction item veto. could you please specify, Thanks.
DeleteThe line item veto (held by 43 governors) let's the governor remove one or more items from an appropriations bill. The reduction item veto (held by 11 governors, including WV) lets the governor do that as well, but s/he can also reduce the item. So, under the regular line item veto, the governor could veto $50,000 for putting up billboards with big pictures of Bob Huggins. Under the reduction item veto, the governor could veto the item entirely (just like before), or could reduce the $50,000 to any figure less than that.
DeleteGov. have some the most powerful jobs in the country but have the hardest times getting re-elected. These reasons are the follow: when you are a gov. you can not please everyone and will piss someone off in the state, if the economy is bad nationwide then you as gov. will be affected.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there are other things you can't control (like businesses coming to the state in many cases), and all the other party needs is to find one really good candidate to run against you (out of all the people in an entire state). Since this is a good job, they can usually do that. Questions from other students??
DeleteThe reasons why there has been a growth in the bureaucracy is because once a state receives a block,project or categorical grant from the federal government then the state has to spend it. Once the grant is up the state hires more people specifically to write grants, which is a bureaucratic position to get more grant money. Yet the charts on your lecture notes Dr NB indicates that bureaucracy as a whole has not gone up that much, right?
ReplyDeleteIt grew hugely from the 50s to the 80s, and fiscal federalism is one reason (others were puffball legislation and increased complexity of life--please see lecture notes)
DeleteI am confused about what puffball is. Can you please explain this?
DeletePlease see my answer to a similar question from Laken Vita below.
Deletecan someone tell me if these are right? the problems of bureaucracy are tough to abolish useless agencies, the overlap between agencies, impersonality, lack of control by elected officials and its hard to fire people. the good points are fairness and that regulation is often needed.
ReplyDeletethe general characteristics of bureaucracy are merit based civil service, testing which is the rule of 3, hierarchy, specialization, job security and adherence to rules.
can anyone tell me what are the ways in which elected officials control bureaucracy?
You've got the basics here (as long as you understand them; memorizing a list is not enough). In yesterday's lecture, I also talked about elected officials controlling bureaucracy through budget control, oversight, gubernatorial appointment of agency heads, and sunset laws. Hopefully, that rings a bell.
Deletethe ways in which elected officials control bureaucracy ? i couldnt understand this question NB?
ReplyDeletePlease see the last part of my answer to Mackenzie Mullenax's questions above.
Deletegeneral characteristic of bureaucracy? merit-based civil service this start with moralistice culture and goes to individualistic culture, when they higher someone they have to go through testing rule of 3 for example when they higher professor for WVU first they look to paper record and top 10 candidate and job related characteristic and this is the key element because without rule 3 you cant have merit-based civl sevice, specialization is important too when u have big problem u need to have expert to solve the problem, job security is important too when someone serve perid of time they become permanant so its hard to fire them and u make sure they are free politic pressure but sometimes this doesnt work because maybe this person is not the much officiency. is this right NB ?
ReplyDeleteYou've described most of the characteristics of bureaucracy. The point about the merit-based civil service is that it started in states with moralistic cultures and some of the last states it was instituted were states with individualistic cultures. Also, don't forget hierarchy and being rule-based as other characteristics of bureaucracy
DeleteWhat are the arguments against the line item veto?
ReplyDeleteand what is the complexity of legislation under the growth of bureaucracy?
thanks
Arguments against line item veto are covered in answer to Mackenzie Mullenax's question above. One of the reasons for the growth of bureaucracy is that legislators simplify their lives by passing "puffball legislation" where they set a general framework (example from class: retesting older drivers) and then let the bureaucracy fill in the details (which necessitates hiring more bureaucrats).
DeleteDr. Berch, could you describe multi-member districts and their importance?
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the harder ones to do in this space, but I'll try. Most states elect people to the state legislature through single member plurality elections. That is, they divide the state into one district (of equal population) for each person in the legislature (100 seats=100 districts). Each district elects one person; whoever gets the most votes wins. Many states used to use multi-member districts (often using counties as boundaries). So, if a county had five seats in the legislature, it would (instead of having five separate districts) elect all five people in a county-wide election. What this does is reduce the power of geographically concentrated minority groups. In Monongalia County, the multi-member district that exists does indeed reduce the power of a geographically concentrated minority group: students. If Mon County were instead divided into five separate districts each electing one person, students would be in the majority in one of the districts, and might be able to elect a student to the House of Delegates. With a mutli-member district, students are outnumbered in the county-wide election for five seats. West Virginia is allowed to maintain multi-member districts, because it is so white that multi-member districts don't serve to reduce the voting power of any geographically concentrated racial or ethnic minority group (they'd be the minority in any single member district as well). Other states, particularly in the South, had used multi-member districts to reduce the voting power of African American voters, so, after the Voting Rights Act, federal courts required them to shift to single member plurality voting.
ReplyDeleteBlog is now closed to new questions. Please make sure to read over what's here. It should help you significantly for the exam. If you have last minute questions, please stop by during office hours (1:45-3:20) on Wednesday (306C Woodburn). Good luck!--NB
ReplyDelete