A Party Whip is tasked with assisting the party leader and identifying the voting patterns of the members of the political party in the legislature. The primary goal is to ensure that party members vote in accordance with the official party policy and do not go rogue.

Members of Congress are most likely to vote in line with their political parties. Very rarely does a Member of Congress not vote in line with the political party with which he or she is affiliated, so much so that when it does happen it usually cause for a major news story.

The Commerce Power, or Commerce Clause, is an enumerated power given to Congress in the United States Constitution. It states that Congress has the power to regulate foreign and interstate trade.

The “power of the purse” refers to the influence of allocating funds on the process of law making and implementation. The legislature has the power to create the budget of the national government. None of the other choices have this power, which is given to the legislature in Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution.

Pork barrel legislation (often just “pork”) is a by-product of the legislative process, and it makes political sense, although it is economically indefensible. Pork is when members of Congress vote to appropriate funds or tax breaks (or really anything) that will economically (or otherwise) benefit their constituency. The problem with pork, however, is that everyone pays for it, but only a few benefit.

Take, for example, a brand new . . . YMCA . . . or something substantially similar that your Congressman secured for you, his constituent. You and everyone else in your hometown of Okay, OK (that’s actually a place) get to benefit from: the increase in jobs this YMCA brings—both in construction and the maintenance and upkeep once it’s built, the exercise benefits of YMA, etc. The best part for you, however, is that you get to share the cost with everyone else all over the US! You can imagine how this could become a problem when every Congressman brings home some pork for his district. 

This is a rather tricky question. The correct answer is that your constituency is everyone in your district—you are the representative of that district (or, if you’re a Senator, of that state). Although you might have been tempted to select the answers that had to do with your party, or those who voted for you, that’s only half of the correct answer.

Straightforward vocab question here. The correct answer is, a logroll is when members of a legislative body swap support for dissimilar policies so that both policy objectives are achieved. While this may sound similar to pork (and it is—pork is an example of logrolling) it’s not the same thing.

An indirect, or representative democracy, is the system of government used in the US. As a representative democracy, we the citizens do not (generally, but there are a few exceptions) vote on laws directly; rather, we vote on representatives to make laws for us. In other words, in a direct democracy (or classic democracy) citizens vote directly on laws, but in an indirect democracy, citizens vote ONLY on representatives who then vote on laws.

This was a relatively difficult question. In order to answer it, you have to remember what pork-barrel legislation is, and how Congressional politics combined with constituent pressure make it logical to produce pork.

Pork-barrel legislation is, in short, a narrowly targeted program or expenditure that directly benefits one politician’s constituency, but which is paid for by the entire country. In other, more concrete terms, imagine that you were a congresswoman (or man) and that your constituency wanted a new rec center in town. It would be a political ‘win’ for you, because not only would your constituents get a new rec center, but you’d be able to employ local contractors to build it! If, however, it is federally funded, it means that your constituents aren’t the only ones paying for it—everyone in the nation is.

Now, as for the “logical” part: because each politician must pander to their constituency (in order to get reelected), pork makes sense; it’s the most direct and visible way to reward a faithful constituency, and moreover, the cost is shared among all Americans. The problem is that every congress member sees the advantage—hence widespread pork.

While opponent candidates are usually weak, especially in terms of adequate qualifications, they are actually most vulnerable when aspiring to the House of Representatives. Incumbent House members are even more likely to be successful in their reelection bids than are their counterparts in the Senate, most likely due to the strong party ties and two year terms that govern the House. Opponents who are seeking to steal away a seat from underneath a sitting House representative face a very arduous task. Challengers do not enjoy much voter visibility, free media coverage, or already earned goodwill among their constituent base and so must battle against an incumbent who is significantly better equipped from the very beginning.