Chapter 4 Vocabulary

suspend, as in a session of congress, until the next session

A legislature consisting of two parts, or houses

lawmakers who vote based on their conscience and judgment, not the views of their constituents; believe that each question they face must be decided on its merits. They call issues as they see them, regardless of the views held by a majority of their constituents or by any of the other groups that seek to influence their decisions.

members of Congress who cast votes based on the wishes of their constituents; see themselves as the agents of the people who elected them. They believe that they should discover what "the folks back home" think about an issue and vote that way. MOST LEGISLATORS ADHERE TO THIS MODEL

lawmakers who attempt to balance the basic elements of the trustee, delegate, and partisan roles

lawmakers who owe their first allegiance to their political party and vote according to the party line.

distributed, as in seats in a legislative body; The Constitution provides that the total number of seats in the House of Representatives shall be apportioned among the States on the basis of their respective populations (Article I, Clause 3)

redistribute, as in seats in a legislative body;Article I of the Constitution directs Congress to reapportion the seats in the House every ten years, after each census (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3).

electoral district from which one person is chosen by the voters for each elected office; voters in each district elect one of the State's representatives from among a field of candidates running for a seat in the House from that district.

election of an officeholder by the voters of an entire governmental unit (e.g. a State or country) rather than by the voters of a district or subdivision.

the drawing of electoral district lines to the advantage of a party or group.

those delegated powers of the National Government that are spelled out, expressly, in the Constitution; also called the "enumerated powers"

those delegated powers of the National Government that are suggested by the expressed powers set out in the Constitution; those "necessary and proper" to carry out the expressed powers

those powers the Constitution is presumed to have delegated to the National Government because it is the government of a sovereign state within the world community

the final clause of Article 1, Section 8 in the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to make all laws "necessary and proper" for executing its powers; basis of implied powers