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Comparative Politics and Government

Notes mood among the electorate. Its speeches bring many tears, but never turn a vote, though it can capture
votes outside the House of Commons. It is to the electorate that its criticism is directed. For though
the cabinet has power, the power is contingent; it faces a dedicated enemy which is armed with
procedural privileges and commands an organised national following. And all the Government says
and does is staked on the hazard of the few votes three or four in every hundred — that can turn it
out. However, it would be a far-fetched view to say that the Parliament has almost declined, if not
demised. There is ample evidence even today to illustrate the “undoubted popularity of parliamentary
broadcasts, including television, the widespread excitement revealed at general elections; the ready
sale of books about every aspect of Parliament, the respect accorded to leading parliamentarians and,
above all, the never-failing queues for seats in the galleries of the House of Commons.”
8.2 US Congress and Swiss Federal Assembly

The legislative organ of the American federal government is known by the name of the Congress.
Originally a body of 26 Senators and 65 Representatives, it now consists of 100 and 435 members in
the upper and lower chambers respectively. In addition to this enlargement of size, a great deal of
difference has occurred in other directions as well. The way its two chambers are organised, and,
more particularly the manner in which they are influenced by local and regional considerations
through the instrumentality of interest groups, has made its proper study a very complex affair. As
Woodrow Wilson suggestively adds: “Like a vast picture thronged with figures of equal prominence
and crowded with elaborate and obtrusive details, Congress is hard to see satisfactorily and
appreciatively at a single standpoint. Its complicated form and diversified structure confuse the vision
and conceal the system which underlies its composition. It is too complex to be understood without
an effort, without a careful and systematic process of analysis, consequently very few people do
understand it, and its doors are practically shut against the comprehension of the public at large.”
Special Features: The organisation, working and functions and powers of the Congress reveal
following salient features:
1. It is a bi-cameral body having Senate and House of Representatives as the upper and lower
chambers respectively. The Senate is organised on the federal principle of equal representation
to all units of the Union regardless of their geographical or demographic compositions. Each
State sends two members whether it is big like New York or small like Nevada. But the lower
house is organised on the principle of territorial representation—on demographic basis with
the provision of at least one member from each State. Thus the quota of every State is fixed and
the work of allocation of electoral districts is with the States subject to the over-riding jurisdiction
of the Congress and the Supreme Court.
2. Originally the method of the election of the Senator was indirect. But the 17 constitutional
th
amendment of 1913 made a change in this regard to combat the menacing tendency of electoral
corruption. As a result, the Senators are now directly elected by the same body of voters in each
State as the people choose their Representatives.
3. Each house of the Congress is the judge of the eligibility of its members and may even go to the
length of disregarding a constitutional point while allowing or refusing a person to take his
seat in either chamber. For instance, in 1806 the Senate admitted Henry Clay of Connecticut
when he was below 30 years of age. In 1926 it refused to let Frank L. Smith of Illinois and
William S. Vare of Pennsylvania take their seats in the house on the plea that they had spent too
much money in their elections. Likewise, the House of Representatives in 1900 excluded
Bringham Robert of Utah to take his seat on the charge that he was a polygamist.
4. There is a big gap in the duration of the life of a Senator and a Representative. While the former
is elected for a term of six years, the latter for two years. It is true that there is no bar on the
times a person may be elected, yet it is clear that the life of a Representative is far too short a
period which discourages eminent politicians to have their place in the popular chamber of the
national legislature.
5. While the Founding Fathers wanted the House to act as the barometer of national opinion and
the Senate as a body to protect the interests of the component units of the union, the situation

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