Pros of Electing the Same Congressman Over and Over Again in Congress
Biennial Elections
Historical Highlight
"The House of Representatives shall be equanimous of Members called every second Twelvemonth by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature."
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 2, clause 1
The U.S. House of Representatives has been a popularly-elected torso with its membership reconstituted every 2 years throughout its history. The biennial term was a compromise at the Federal Constitutional Convention, but there accept been efforts every bit late as the 1960s to modify its length. The two-year term has dictated the rhythm of legislative business in the House.
Origins
English parliamentary elections and meetings of the Business firm of Eatables varied between three- and seven-year terms, but elections and meetings were set by the members themselves and often tied to the demands of the male monarch. The and so-called "Long Parliament," for example, sat for 8 years prior to the English civil state of war and continued in diverse states of legality for another 12. The republican military machine leader Oliver Cromwell dismissed this parliament in 1653 by famously declaring that it had "grown intolerably odious to the whole nation." With this much in mind, delegates at the Convention were concerned that Members of the House would abound detached from their constituencies if they did not face regular elections.
Ramble Framing
/tiles/non-collection/i/i_origins_biennal_elections_madison_hc.xml Collection of the U.S. Firm of Representatives
Well-nigh this object James Madison was an integral part of the ramble framing of the House.
Convention delegates contested the terms of service for Members of the Firm, and the founders employed their experiences with the House of Eatables and the country legislatures when considering the pattern of the new federal government. Two innovations designed to further democratic accountability separated the American and British experiences. The first was stock-still terms of function. Different in parliamentary systems, American political parties could not call advantageous elections. Elections would be held according to a given length of time rather than when political leaders thought they would exist most probable to win. The second innovation was regular elections. In most colonial and state legislatures, members of the lower chambers faced annual elections, while some were every half dozen months. Only South Carolina had biennial elections for the legislature. Connecticut Delegate Roger Sherman spoke of the necessity of regular elections during the Convention: "Representatives ought to render habitation and mix with the people. By remaining at the seat of Govt. they would acquire the habits of the place which might differ from those of their Constituents."
1 and three-twelvemonth terms of service were initially proposed at the Convention. Proponents of the one-yr term used their state legislatures every bit an case, while proponents of the three-year term followed the British example at the time. Those who wanted longer terms argued that national governments were more than complex than state governments, and that i year was an insufficient corporeality of time for representatives to become acquainted with the policies and do of federal regime. They also said travel constraints lonely justified longer terms, since at the fourth dimension it could take months for Members of Congress to achieve the capital from more remote areas. Supporters of one-year terms, however, said longer terms bordered on tyranny. The Convention settled on two-twelvemonth terms for Members of the House as a true compromise between the one- and 3-yr factions.
"An Intimate Sympathy"
Advocates for 1-twelvemonth terms continued to dissent from the compromise during the state conventions on constitutional ratification. Ane Anti-Federalist wrote that the Business firm would be the "Banana Aristocratical Co-operative" to the Senate, where the Members would be "infinitely more inclined to co-operate and compromise with each other, than to exist the careful guardians of the rights of their constituents." Simply Rufus King, at the Massachusetts country convention, explained the balance the federal delegates attempted to strike. "Information technology seems proper that the representative should exist in office time plenty to acquire that data which is necessary to course a right judgment; but that the time should not exist so long as to remove from his mind the powerful check upon his conduct, that arises from the frequency of elections, whereby the people are enabled to remove an unfaithful representative, or to keep a faithful ane," he said.
In Federalist, no.52, James Madison of Virginia writes: "Every bit information technology is essential to liberty that the authorities in full general, should take a mutual interest with the people; so information technology is particularly essential that the co-operative of it under consideration, should have an firsthand dependence on, & an intimate sympathy with the people." Frequent elections, therefore, were key to the "intimate sympathy" Members of the House were supposed to take with their constituents. Frequent elections in the House also helped to justify the longer terms of Senators, particularly for Federalists who were concerned most popular opinion swaying public policy and faced attacks for creating an "aristocratic" bedchamber in Congress to correspond state interests.
Electric current Do
Ii-yr terms impact how Congress conducts its business organization. The House recreates itself after every election--pending bills die, committee work is shelved, and new Members accept their seats. Fifty-fifty if few freshman legislators win election and the party in control of the House remains the same, each session becomes its own, individual entity. Elected officers, similar the Clerk, are charged with maintaining what little consistency in that location is between Congresses. As a result, fourth dimension becomes an of import, though scarce, resource. That resources is depleted farther given the crush of mandatory business organisation (like cribbing bills), the demands of modern campaigns, and the need for Members to travel dorsum abode. The rhythm of legislative business can be frenetic and includes some late nights, specially as the House debates complex or controversial problems.
For Further Reading
Elliot, Jonathan, ed. The Debates in the Several Land Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. . . . five vols. 2d ed. 1888. Reprint. (New York: Burt Franklin, northward.d.).
Farrand, Max, ed. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Rev. ed. 4 vols. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1937).
Jones, Charles O. Every Second Yr: Congressional Behavior and the Two-Year Term. (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1967).
Madison, James, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay. The Federalist Papers. (New York: Penguin Books, 1987).
Storing, Herbert J., ed. The Consummate Anti-Federalist. 7 vols. (Chicago: Academy of Chicago Press, 1981).
Source: https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Biennial-Elections/
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