I. Introduction 1. The Congress that the U.S. and most Latin American countries has is different from the Parliament that most European nations have because in Europe, a person who wants to run for office must persuade his party to nominate him, while in America, politicians can run for themselves. i. In Europe, people vote for parties; in America, they vote for individuals. ii. In primaries, people vote especially for a “person” (and his qualities, traits, etc…), and in general elections, this is sometimes true also. iii. In parliament, legislators can support their leaders or not, and if they don’t then new leaders (prime minister and various cabinet members) must be elected. a. This ensures that more action can occur, since the parties of the executive and legislative branches are practically always the same. iv. Congress is free from the turmoil of possible collapsing executive branches and is more powerful to make decisions; Congressmen don’t have to worry about easily losing their positions come another election. a. In Congress, there is less cohesion in bill passing, and less stuff can get done. v. Parliaments members usually engage in debate, are poorly paid, have little independent power, and receive little power as well. vi. Meanwhile, Congressmen are much better paid, have more power, do many things in committees, and have staff members of their own, thus “proving how important they are.”
The Evolution of Congress
2 The framers of the Constitution chose a congress over other forms of representative gov’t because they didn’t want all power concentrated together, even if it was in a group of people, but they also knew that the states would want to be heavily represented
