Essay 1
(a) Beyond its numerical advantage, the majority party holds several advantages in the process of lawmaking in the House of Representatives. One of these advantages is the ability to the choose the speaker of the house. This gives an advantage because the Speaker of the House holds various powers such as appointing members to committees and controlling the agenda. The majority party also the majority in each committee. Because most of the legislative process takes place in the committees, holding the majority in the committees can greatly influence the outcome of the legislation. Both of these advantages help in resulting in a legislation that is in the majority party’s favor.
(b) One difference between the two …show more content…
The majority party holds the majority in committees as well as holds the committee chair. This influences the legislative process in the favor of the majority party because the committee chair decides the agenda and the members revise the bill, likely in the favor of their own ideology. With this leadership role, bills are usually in favor of the majority party.
Essay 4
(a) Several problems can arouse from a divided government. The easiest one to identify would be the conflict in ideologies. Because of the differing ideologies, there would be a greater policy conflict between the two branches of government. Also, conflict exists in the appointing of a person to a federal position due to the narrow field of potential candidates, resulting in offices remaining vacant. Vacant offices slow the government down and create a bad image for the public.
(b) To resolve the conflicts in ideology, the president can make compromises that result in satisfaction for both parties. For example, the president can accept a certain legislation if the senate approves of an appointment. Also, the president can use his/her veto power as a threat to have decisions play in the favor of the president’s ideology. This is effective because members of congress do not want to waste their time on passing legislation that they doubt will be signed by the