ipl-logo

Levinson The Purpose Of The Senate Summary

1618 Words7 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Electoral college analysis

Taylor Brown
POLS 4130 – Ross
Final Exam

1. Sanford Levinson argues that Article 1, Section 3, Clause 1 (“The Senate of the Unites States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote”) should appall most Americans and lead them to support a new constitutional convention. Using Madison’s Notes and the Federalist Papers explain A) the purposes of the Senate, B) how the institutional design (number of representatives, term length, original mode of selection, enumerated powers, etc) accomplishes those purposes, and C) if the Senate’s purposes and institutional design are still defensible.

The Senate of the United States was instituted for several reasons. …show more content…

Any bill that originates in the House must be ratified by 2/3’s of the Senate. Each State is represented within the Senate by two-senators. This was the result of a compromise between the larger and smaller states. The House is dominated by the larger states which have more representatives due to their larger population. Initially the Senate was selected by State Legislators; this has since changed to the selection process we have today by popular vote. The term length for a Senator is six-years, with one-third of Senators being up for election every two-years. This keeps a constant rotation of new ideas and people within the Senate, while providing stability to the legislative branch. Eligibility for a Senator requires you to have attained at least 30-years of age and a citizen for at least nine-years. According to Madison, this helps prevents the inexperienced and foreigners who wish to cause harm from being …show more content…

When the Constitution was created, they needed to appease the larger and smaller states due to the distinct nature of each individual state at the time. This is one reason why the State Legislators in the past were given the responsibility of selecting Senators from each given state. The reasoning was that the House would represent the interests of the people, whereas the Senate would represent the interests of the States. Levinson does suggest that a unicameralism legislature is not a far-fetched idea. This would remove the Senate in its entirety, leaving the House in sole responsibility of passing legislation. The checks and balances that the founders desired between the Senate and the House would be reflected in the competing political parties within the House.

2. Sanford Levinson argues that the Electoral College is a “dreadful system of presidential selection” that is beyond defending. Using Madison’s Notes and the Federalist Papers, explain the A) purposes of the Electoral College (why they chose this method over others) and B) whether or not Publius’s defense applies to current debates over maintaining or eliminating the Electoral

Show More
Related
1054 Words | 5 Pages

Vonelle Robertson Professor Currie American National Government April 15th, 2015 Essay: Should the 17thAmendment be repealed? While citizens of each state did not directly vote in the senators of their respective states legislatures chose the senators based on the law that was adopted in the constitution in 1788.The 17th amendment came about because of the state legislature being deadlocked over the election of United States Senators. This left numerous senate vacancies lasting as long as months or even years. But this was not the first attempt to amend the constitution to elect senators by popular vote. It was first introduced in the US House of Representatives in 1826 but the amendment did not have favorable support until the late 19th century

Read More
388 Words | 2 Pages

Overall, different people have different opinions on the Senate. Some want to abolish, reform or keep it as is. However, I believe it should be reformed to make it more equal for everyone across

Read More
899 Words | 4 Pages

"How Democratic is the American Constitution ?", by political scientist Robert A. Dahl is a short book that questions the ethical and political issues in America 's Constitution and the structure of the United States government. The book consists of a series of abstract lectures composed by Dahl that reflects on how the American Constitution affects modern society. While this short book brings out plentiful knowledge on the American system , it does not go any deeper into those general ideas for it is only about 200 pages. However, it is still a knowledgeable book to introduce the fundamentals of American government and political science and why American citizens should uphold the Constitution. Dahl introduces the book of how the Founding

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

As one of the most hotly debated areas of the US government, the Electoral College deserves to be given a more in-depth look. It was originally founded as a way to prevent a lack of informed voters from electing an unqualified president. Now, it still serves its original purpose, but has become far less necessary in an age of easily accessible information. Despite having some positive points, the Electoral College is too overburdened by issues like unfair vote distribution and a high failure rate to be an effective system. The way the Electoral College distributes votes is overtly favorable to less populated states.

Read More
298 Words | 2 Pages

After the countless debates, the Great Compromise was what the convention would come into agreement with representation by population in the House of Representatives “The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative. ”(add footnote) The smaller states were pleased with equal representation in the Senate “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senates from each state and each Senator shall have one vote.”(add

Read More
1284 Words | 6 Pages

“The Constitution assigns the Senate and House equal power for declaring war, maintaining the armed forces, assessing taxes, borrowing money, minting currency, regulating commerce, and making all laws “necessary and proper” for the operation of the government. However, the Senate holds exclusive authority to advise and consent on treaties and presidential nominations.”

Read More
344 Words | 2 Pages

The functions of the Senate is to cautiously examine legislation that are proposed by the House of Commons, to suggest changes or adjustments. The Senate can reject a bill, and recommend changes and improvements to be made. They can introduce new bills however, most bills are introduced by the House of Commons. A bill cannot become a law in Canada without the Senates approval. This is also the only reason that the Senate is a useful institution in Canada today as it represents the interest of the provinces in federal legislative.

Read More
1593 Words | 7 Pages

One of the compromises made in the Constitutional Convention is the three-fifths compromise. In this compromise, the southerners wanted to add slaves to the population of the state they lived in. If slaves were included in their state’s population, that state would be able to add more representatives in the House of Representatives. Northerners did not agree with that statement because slaves did not have the right to vote. After the delegates compromised, they agreed that only three-fifths of the slave’s population would be counted into the state’s population.

Read More
418 Words | 2 Pages

Whose views should members of Congress represent when voting? Why does the Constitution establish a bicameral legislature? The bicameral legislature was based on the model of Parliament, was a key condition of the Great Compromise, and allows each house of Congress to act as a check on the other. It also makes sure that all the power is divied.

Read More
545 Words | 3 Pages

The founders wanted the Senate to view the impact of their decisions at a national level. They wanted the senate to take a methodical approach to voting. Members of the senate remain in office on six-year terms, much longer then their House of Representative counter parts. The idea behind a six-year term is to provide a form of barrier from the people; this allowed the senate to make long-term decisions rather then, what is developing now. Members of the Senate are also required to be a minimum 30 years of age, as opposed to the 25 years of age for House members.

Read More
318 Words | 2 Pages

What are the powers and purposes of the Senate? The Senate is designed to represent regions rather than people and also providing ‘sober, second thought” on the work done by the House of Commons. The Senate is the only non-elected legislature in Canada. As a Senator's writ of summons states, he or she has been appointed "for the purpose of obtaining your advice and assistance in all weighty and arduous affairs which may be the State and Defence of Canada concern"(Parliament of Canada).

Read More
131 Words | 1 Pages

However, trust in a state elected senate eroded over time. Because of legislative deadlock, instances of corruption in the election of senators, and a slow move to populism, the public eventually began to resent the method in which senators were chosen. Although the constitution stated in Article I Section 3 that senators were to be chosen by state legislatures, it was unclear about how that selection should happen. In the late 19th century, states consistently failed to elect their senators because of this grey area. This was the result of political parties dividing state legislatures to the point where they could not agree on a singular candidate and between 1885 and 1900 alone the states of West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, Washington and

Read More
275 Words | 2 Pages

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators, each of whom represents a single state in its entirety, with each state being equally represented by two senators, regardless of its population, serving staggered terms of six years; with fifty states presently in the Union, there are 100 U.S. Senators. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by legislatures of the states they represented; following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

In Document D, it says, “The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand but each state shall have at least one representative… The Senate of the United States shall be composed by the legislatures thereof for six years, and each

Read More
965 Words | 4 Pages

The number of representatives in the House was determined by population. This favored bigger states more than small states. For example, Rhode Island only had one vote, while Virginia had 10. The bigger states would’ve been more happy because they have more votes and can lean the laws toward their way. Because of this, to make it fair they made it so that the senate would have equal vote no matter what.

Read More

More about Levinson The Purpose Of The Senate Summary

Related Topics

Open Document