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all right welcome back everything you
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need for unit two interaction among
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branches of government right now let's
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do it all right so we're gonna start
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with Congress before we do make sure get
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that like button right as we start so
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you don't forget okay so the house of
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reason it has 435 members and it is
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based on population so each
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representative serves a specific
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district with any state they serve
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two-year terms and the House of
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Representatives is more formal and more
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rules based than the Senate the Senate
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has 100 members that's two per state so
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every state is represented equally in
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the Senate senators serve six-year terms
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and the Senate is less formal and less
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rules based than houses all right so
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what about the powers and functions of
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each so let's start with the house the
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House of Representatives initiates all
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tax and revenue bills the house also has
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the power of impeachment the house also
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has a Rules Committee this provides an
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additional step in the legislative
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process that does not exist in the
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Senate so this rules committee base up
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the rules for debate when the bill comes
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to the floor they can make it easier or
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more difficult for the legislation to
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pass the house can form itself into
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something known as a committee of the
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whole
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so essentially the house will turn
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itself into a committee temporarily with
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all 435 members they'll vote as a
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committee so this can help legislation
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pass faster all right this Senate on the
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other hand they have confirmation power
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so they can confirm nominations made by
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the president they can also ratify
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treaties now a major difference the
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Senate is that listen it can have
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filibusters so because there's no time
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limit and because there's no requirement
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to remain on topic a senator can speak
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for as long as and about whatever he or
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she wishes the purpose is to prevent a
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bill from being voted on but how can the
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Senate in the filibuster though term for
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that is cloture it is a three-fifths
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vote so that's 60 out of 100 of a full
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Senate we need a vote to end debate on
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that bill that would end the filibuster
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forcibly and then the bill would be able
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to be voted on the result of this is
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that in the Senate to pass controversial
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wide-ranging legislation it often
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requires a filibuster
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proof supermajority meaning sixty
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members so that you can end the
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filibuster
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similarly senators can issue a hold it
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hold acts much like a filibuster does
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and that it prevents the bill from being
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debated or discussed or voted upon so
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holding filibusters slow and delay
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action make it tougher to pass things on
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the other hand there is something called
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a unanimous consent agreement which the
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Senate can pass again to speed along the
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process so they can say all right here
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the rules we're gonna set and unless
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there is unanimous agreement then we're
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gonna keep moving the process along all
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right well what about leadership in
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Congress well it's important to talk
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about congressional committees and the
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most important type of committee is
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known as a standing committee standing
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committees are permanent they are where
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bills are first sent where they then
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will edit and revise markup the bill
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debate it most bills die right there and
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never come out of this stage standing
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committees are also in charge of
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overseeing bills once they have actually
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been passed they oversee the executive
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branch to make sure that those bills are
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being enforced correctly and that's
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known as congressional oversight
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committee chairs are the leaders of
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committees and they are always from the
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majority parties the majority party also
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gets to have the Speaker of the House so
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this is the most powerful person in the
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House of Representatives again they take
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the lead for setting the agenda and
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making sure that his or her party's
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policies actually get passed in the
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Senate we want to consider leadership
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and there's somebody known as the
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president of the Senate and the AP just
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likes to ask about this that is the Vice
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President of the United States that
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person is officially the president of
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the Senate the only time this job
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actually matters is if there is a tie
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breaking vote but otherwise they aren't
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involved in the day-to-day operation of
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the Senate the Senate majority leader is
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the most powerful person in the Senate
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they are like the Senate's version of
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the Speaker of the House and the Senate
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majority leader just like the speaker
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they will be from the majority party so
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again you see the role of political
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parties in these leadership positions so
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one of the most important powers
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Congress has is the power of the purse
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so this is their ability to just spend
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money and to raise money now talking
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about the spending money part there's
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two types of federal spending
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discretionary and mandatory spending
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discretionary spending must be approved
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annually every year Congress will make a
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budget and they will then appropriate
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money for certain things if Congress
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does not pass a budget for discretionary
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spending then that money won't be spent
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it won't take place so Congress has
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control along with the president to
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increase or decrease this amount year to
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year on the other hand we have something
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known as mandatory spending now this is
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money that Congress does not have to
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approve an appropriate year-to-year this
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will happen automatically without
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congressional action so if Congress does
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nothing it will simply take place what's
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important for you to know is that over
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two-thirds of all federal spending today
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is considered mandatory spending and it
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is most commonly on entitlement programs
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entitlement programs provide benefits to
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people who are entitled to them by law
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the best examples of entitlement
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programs are things like Social Security
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Medicare and Medicaid
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so the law says that if you are this age
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and you meet these certain
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qualifications then you will receive
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Social Security or Medicare Congress can
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change mandatory spending but to do so
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you would need new legislation and it is
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often difficult and extremely
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controversial to change these programs
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because remember a lot of people are
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getting benefits from these programs
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along with that we have pork barrel
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legislation laws that provide for
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tangible benefits jobs programs money
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back to a congressman's district hand in
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hand with that is log rolling so this is
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vote trading you vote for mine
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I vote for yours all right so when we
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talk about congressional behavior there
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are three models of representation there
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is delegate trustee and Politico
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all right so if the person's acting is a
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trustee that means they believe it is
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their duty to vote the way that he or
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she thinks is right even if it goes
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against what his or her constituents
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want them to do a delegate on the other
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hand they would go to Congress and they
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would vote the way their constituents
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want even if they personally might
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disagree Politico is the idea that
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sometimes you act as a trustee and
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sometimes you act as a delegate all
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right so now we need to consider how the
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districts get made so we have a few
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things to deal with one is we know the
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house is based off population so every
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ten years we have a census and then
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reapportionment takes place and this is
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changing the number of seats that each
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state has in the house representatives
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to make sure that is still proportional
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according to
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population once that's taken place now
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the maps need to be redrawn the term for
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that is congressional redistricting
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that's the redrawing and that is done by
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the state legislatures when they do this
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in a bizarre shape to benefit their
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party that is known as gerrymandering
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that is legally allowed what's not
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allowed is malapportionment and that's
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because of Baker versus Carr so you
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cannot have districts of very unequal
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size one other limit on drawing the
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districts is that they cannot be drawn
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based only on race so there can be no
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racial gerrymandering and that's because
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of Shaw versus Reno all right in our
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last couple terms with Congress we have
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something known as divided government
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this is the idea that between this
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president the Senate and the house at
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least one of them is a different party
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than the other when we have divided
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government that will lead to policy
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gridlock that is where it is slower more
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difficult for legislation to pass we
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will have tougher confirmation hearings
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we will have less legislation passed
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we'll have fewer people being confirmed
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to jobs
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tougher to get things done in government
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all right so let's turn our attention to
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the presidency and specifically an
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expansion of presidential powers so
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presence rely on both formal and
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informal powers formal powers include
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the power to veto where he would send
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back that legislation to Congress and
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rejected preventing it from going into
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law unless Congress is able to override
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that veto with a two-thirds vote but
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that only happens about 4% of the time
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so this veto power is quite strong the
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president can also pocket veto a bill
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now this can only occur when he gets the
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bill within the last 10 days of a
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session of Congress the president simply
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does nothing and that bill does not
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become a law and the president is
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commander-in-chief that means he is head
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of the Armed Forces so this gives him
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tremendous power in foreign policy now
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increasingly presents rely more and more
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on their informal powers so one example
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is executive agreements so this is an
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agreement that a president would make
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with a foreign head of state and it
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would be just like a treaty but the
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benefit to the president is it does not
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require Senate ratifications presidents
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also issue executive orders now these
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have the power of law and they do not
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require congressional approval
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now the Constitution does not directly
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state that executive orders are a thing
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but every president since George
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Washington
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have you used executive orders and so
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this is a real way that presents managed
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the bureaucracy and make foreign policy
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typically presents also our increasingly
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reliant on signing statements so when
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the president gets a bill from Congress
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oftentimes he'll go through the bill and
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essentially write notes on the bill
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saying what parts he approves or
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disapproves of and how he interprets it
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and then we have the president's rely on
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bargaining and persuasion except of
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bargain with Congress because they rely
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on Congress to pass legislation that
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they can then approve of they really
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can't get very much done in domestic
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policy without Congress and then
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persuasion again they rely on Congress
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so they need to persuade not just
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congressmen but the public to be on
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their side because a popular president
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is more likely to be able to get stuff
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done and more likely to be able to
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convince Congress to do something he
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wants now the way that this is all set
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up leads to some natural tension between
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Congress and the president when you
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think about things like confirmation the
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president nominates people to jobs like
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federal judges in court and lower court
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judges people like ambassadors and
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diplomats and cabinet secretaries the
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president nominates these people but
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then the Senate confirms them and so
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this can lead to some tension and again
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to negotiation and compromise
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speaking of judicial appointments are a
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present longest lasting influence
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because they get that job for life which
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you're gonna talk about in just a moment
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but the fact that they have that job for
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life means that this is a hugely
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consequential decision and presents
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desperately want to get judges confirmed
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that they agree with and that will rule
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in a way that the president would
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probably agree with as well now there
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are some positions that do not require
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Senate confirmation and so then you can
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avoid this tension so members of the
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White House staff and White House office
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so his domestic and foreign policy
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advisors his chief of staff his press
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secretary speechwriters president can
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choose whomever he wants without Senate
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confirmation and the last two things we
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want to consider the president are ways
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that presidential communication has
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changed over time we have presents rely
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heavily on the bully pulpit this is the
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idea that because they are president
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people pay attention to what they say
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and do so presidents have a unique
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ability to always command the public's
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attention which they can then use to put
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pressure on Congress to do what the
00:11:01
president wants them to do similarly is
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the State of the Union address once a
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year the president
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to speech to Congress in which he
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outlines what has happened in the
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country over the last year and what he
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wants to occur going forward into the
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future he's trying to get the public on
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his side so they will then put pressure
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on their congressmen to support the
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president and again in modern times you
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see the way communication changes so
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using social media reacting very quickly
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going right to the people has proven to
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be a very effective strategy of presence
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just avoiding the news media just going
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right to the people all right so next up
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is the judicial branch article 3 of the
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Constitution gives them their powers but
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is really vague and doesn't say very
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much so we end up really relying on
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Marbury vs. Madison and Federalist
00:11:45
number 78 to tell us about the judicial
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branch a really quick and easy version
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is that Hamilton is arguing for judicial
00:11:52
independence he is saying that we need
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to make sure that the judicial branch is
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not reliant on the other two branches
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for their job or for their pay because
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we need the judicial branch to check the
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power of the other two branches so his
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solution is to give them life tenure so
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they cannot be fired or have their pay
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cut because of the decisions they're
00:12:10
making he says this is important because
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they need to rule in a neutral unbiased
00:12:15
way and sometimes they need to use that
00:12:18
power of judicial review to strike down
00:12:21
unconstitutional laws made by Congress
00:12:23
now where does this judicial review
00:12:25
power come from in Marbury vs. Madison
00:12:27
the Court does say and oh by the way we
00:12:30
have the power to rule things
00:12:31
unconstitutional because if a law goes
00:12:34
against Constitution it is our job to
00:12:36
say that the Constitution is greater
00:12:38
than the law
00:12:39
now when justices are making their
00:12:41
decision in a particular case they often
00:12:44
will look to past decisions it's known
00:12:46
as a precedent so a precedent is a
00:12:48
ruling that will influence future cases
00:12:50
that are similar and the term there's a
00:12:52
latin term for this it's called starry
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decisis means that the court should
00:12:56
follow precedent now the court does not
00:12:57
have to follow precedent but it often
00:13:00
does but it is important to note that it
00:13:02
is free and allowed to overrule itself
00:13:04
and it changes mine and create new
00:13:06
precedents and it does do that from time
00:13:08
to time however typically the court does
00:13:11
rely on this principle and does in fact
00:13:13
follow precedents most of the time so
00:13:15
now we're gonna talk about two judicial
00:13:17
philosophies Digital activism and
00:13:19
judicial restraint do dish
00:13:21
restraint is the idea that the court
00:13:23
shouldn't be very powerful but it should
00:13:25
defer to the democratically elected
00:13:27
branches of government judicial activism
00:13:29
on the other hand says no it's our job
00:13:31
to use judicial review it's to protect
00:13:33
the Constitution and to defend rights
00:13:35
that might be being violated by the
00:13:37
majority so even if a democratically
00:13:40
elected majority wants to do something
00:13:41
that doesn't mean it's okay so they will
00:13:44
actively use their power to make policy
00:13:46
all right and lastly we're to the
00:13:48
federal bureaucracies we're kind of
00:13:50
coming back to the executive branch so
00:13:52
we know the job of the executive branch
00:13:53
is to enforce the law president is just
00:13:56
one person he can't do that by himself
00:13:57
so we have this massive bureaucracy at
00:14:00
the federal government and what it does
00:14:02
is it actually enforces and implements
00:14:04
the federal laws that Congress passes so
00:14:06
these are the people who do the
00:14:07
day-to-day job people work in the lower
00:14:09
levels with progress to the day to day
00:14:11
jobs these are not political jobs
00:14:12
they're just career employees working in
00:14:15
job like anybody else the top level
00:14:18
positions usually are politically
00:14:20
appointed now we have something known as
00:14:21
the merit system which is designed to
00:14:23
end the era of political patronage so
00:14:26
the merit system means the way that
00:14:27
those non-political people get their job
00:14:28
is that they earn it they qualify for it
00:14:30
they might have passed the civil service
00:14:32
exam and it says that you qualify for
00:14:34
this job the old days of political
00:14:36
patronage so you would get that job
00:14:38
because of who you knew or because of
00:14:39
who you voted for it can be very
00:14:41
politically corrupt so this is something
00:14:43
that has promoted the idea of expertise
00:14:45
and neutrality within the bureaucracy
00:14:47
and it's probably a step in the right
00:14:49
direction
00:14:50
all right so within the bureaucracy we
00:14:51
have four different types of
00:14:53
bureaucratic agencies cabinet
00:14:55
departments are by far the largest and
00:14:57
they have major responsibilities over a
00:14:59
broad area of policy next we have
00:15:01
executive agencies and what they do is
00:15:04
they provide a public service so the EPA
00:15:07
the Environmental Protection Agency is a
00:15:09
great example of an executive agency we
00:15:12
also have independent regulatory
00:15:14
commissions now their area is a little
00:15:16
bit more narrow than cabinet departments
00:15:18
but they are able to make rules and
00:15:20
regulations try to regulate a specific
00:15:22
industry or sector of the American
00:15:25
economy government corporations on the
00:15:27
other hand they provide some kind of
00:15:29
service that could be done by a private
00:15:31
business but is not because it does not
00:15:33
appear to be
00:15:34
profitable so the government decides to
00:15:36
do this instead and so they provide that
00:15:38
service all right so let's hit pause on
00:15:41
the video right now see this multiple
00:15:43
choice question answer down below in the
00:15:44
comments all right and then when you're
00:15:46
ready move on and keep watching the rest
00:15:48
of the video so we have four main tasks
00:15:51
of these federal agents
00:15:52
they both write and enforce regulations
00:15:55
so they have the power to use some
00:15:57
discretion to make regulations
00:16:00
themselves so they have some lawmaking
00:16:01
power it's not taking kuddle law it's
00:16:03
called a rule or regulation sometimes
00:16:05
known as administrative law and then
00:16:08
they enforce these as well so that is
00:16:10
quite a bit of power these bureaucratic
00:16:12
agencies have they also punish violators
00:16:14
most commonly by issuing fines they also
00:16:17
testify before Congress and then lastly
00:16:19
we have that they are part of issuing
00:16:21
networks and iron triangles so let's
00:16:22
talk about each of those a little bit
00:16:23
more iron triangles are made up of
00:16:25
congressional committees interest groups
00:16:28
and bureaucratic agencies so you have
00:16:30
this idea of bringing all three together
00:16:32
to make an influence policy so you have
00:16:35
the interest group which is representing
00:16:37
the public side of things so we want
00:16:39
certain rules to be made you have
00:16:41
Congress congressional committees
00:16:43
represented and they are going to
00:16:44
actually make the law and then you have
00:16:46
the bureaucratic agencies represented
00:16:48
they are the ones who will be enforcing
00:16:50
the law and who will be making the
00:16:51
specific regulations that go along with
00:16:53
that law so really it's like a symbiotic
00:16:55
relationship where the interest groups
00:16:57
what they can offer is electoral support
00:16:59
to congressmen the congressmen can
00:17:01
provide favorable legislation to the
00:17:03
interest group and they can provide
00:17:04
funding to the bureaucratic agency and
00:17:06
then the agency can make rules and
00:17:08
regulations that please the interest
00:17:10
group and that please Congress so each
00:17:12
side is giving something out of it and
00:17:13
they are giving something to the others
00:17:15
as part of this exchange issue networks
00:17:17
the same idea but they are just a looser
00:17:19
more informal relationship alright and
00:17:21
so lastly we come to that idea of
00:17:23
congressional oversight so this is when
00:17:25
congressional committees standing
00:17:27
committees specifically hold hearings
00:17:29
and investigate the executive branch
00:17:31
because maybe the President himself the
00:17:33
administration or specific agencies and
00:17:35
departments so if they want to make sure
00:17:37
is that those agencies are doing their
00:17:39
job properly they are enforcing the law
00:17:41
the way that Congress intended for them
00:17:44
to do so the most common way that they
00:17:45
exercise this oversight function is
00:17:47
through
00:17:48
middie hearings today require the
00:17:50
high-level members of these committees
00:17:51
to come in to testify before the
00:17:54
committee and again inform them on
00:17:56
what's going on and they can decide
00:17:57
whether or not they're pleased with what
00:17:59
they hear they then have the power of
00:18:01
the purse which means they can either
00:18:03
increase or decrease that agency's
00:18:05
budget depending on whether they like or
00:18:07
don't like what they're hearing all
00:18:09
right it's a lot of information but
00:18:10
until next time this is Ben Oh money
00:18:13
production all right thanks again for
00:18:16
watching this video make sure that you
00:18:17
subscribe if you haven't already hit
00:18:19
that like button for me you know I
00:18:20
appreciate it so much
00:18:21
thank you guys I'll see you in the next
00:18:23
video
