The Senate and the House of Representatives Explained (Congress - AP Government Review)

hey there students in this lecture i'm going to give you a quick primer on the key characteristics of the senate in the house so that you will know for your government exam what are the key characteristics of each house and how may the two be compared shout out to michael link in florida thank you for all the tutoring sessions and all that kind of stuff i hope you do great so let's go ahead and start off with the senate all right so first of all the senate is known as the upper house alright of the legislature which was originally conceived by the framers to be more aristocratic remember when the constitution was originally written before the 17th amendment that senators were indirectly appointed by the state legislature instead of directly elected by the people now of course the 17th amendment has changed that but that house still has a bit of its aristocratic history in its traditions so the upper house has two senators per state that's because this house was intended to be the federal house where every state no matter how big or how small has the same representation as a result of the great compromise so two senators from california two senators from wyoming six-year terms the intent of the framers was that the senate would be an insulated body where they could debate the questions of the day and treaties and foreign relations and all of that kind of stuff in the style of the roman senate but without the constant interference of public opinion so that the senators can do what's best for the country even if it may not be immediately popular a hundred senators so the senate is the smaller of the two houses and it is chaired by the vice president who is not a member the vice president may vote to break a tie but the vice president cannot vote to create a tie because the vice president is not a member of that body and of course the senate has the tradition of unlimited debate being a smaller body with aristocratic traditions and all of that kind of stuff that's why you hear about the filibuster as a distinctive feature of the senate then an impeachment trial will happen in the senate now that is once the house has already drawn up articles of impeachment remember that just because a president is impeached doesn't mean that they are removed from office so senatorial courtesy here this is a tradition in the senate that when you hear senators refer to each other the honorable gentleman from massachusetts or the senator from florida or something like that that they typically will not refer to each other by name even and of course the filibuster comes from this tradition of senatorial courtesy that someone has the floor as long as they hold the floor that there are no time limits in speaking or anything like that and then of course when it comes to nominations the house has absolutely no role when it comes to the nominations of federal judges of cabinet members of ambassadors to other countries those all go through the senate the president nominates someone and those people are confirmed by the senate with the house having absolutely no role so confirmation of presidential appointments that is a distinctive feature of the senate and then finally by a two-thirds vote the senate may ratify or reject treaties that are negotiated by the president so the point of the senate here is to assist the president in his role of chief diplomat and make sure that the treaties that he brings back are in the best interest of the country so now on to the house which is known as the lower house now of course this was intended by the framers to be the more democratic house the house that directly represents the people and the representation in the lower house is proportional which the intent here is for this to be the national house james madison wrote in federalist 39 that the government that's being created is partly national but also partly federal there are two-year terms and so the point here is that this house will be more directly accountable to the people and they are supposed to be responsive to popular opinion the framers did not believe in democracy per se but they believed in the aristotelian tradition that the government should have a democratic element and that's what's intended here the house is a larger body with 435 members and chaired by the speaker of the house who is typically a member of that body and i think always has been even though the constitution does not say strictly speaking that that has to be the case there's limited debate now of course this house does not have the same aristocratic traditions and also there are more people there so arguments in the house you you have the floor for this long and then you have to sit down now of course articles of impeachment are drawn up in the house i'd mention that impeachment trials occur in the senate but articles of impeachment are drawn up in the house and so just because the president's impeached does not mean that the president's removed from office that two presidents have been impeached andrew johnson and bill clinton one president has resigned from office richard nixon in order to avoid impeachment and likely removal from office but no president has ever been removed from office now the one distinctive power of the house besides drawing up articles of impeachment before they can go to the senate where cooler heads can prevail is that all revenue bills must originate in the house now remember when you go back to the american revolution no taxation without representation so revenue bills having to do with taxation must originate in the house where the house is closer to the people and the decision attacks should start with this more democratic house so here are both of these bodies if you want to pause it and just take a look comparing of course the senate is a house with a smaller amount of people it's the federal house there are these traditions of courtesy and aristocracy and all of that kind of stuff whereas the house is a larger body that is intended to be national in scope and more democratic and directly representative of the people if you learn something feel free to subscribe to my channel and of course twitter instagram social media and all of that kind of stuff until next time you

Channel: Tom Richey

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Keywords: The Senate and the House, The Senate and the House of Representatives, AP Government Review, difference between the senate and house, difference between the house and the senate, AP Government Chapter 12, AP Government and Politics, AP Government, Tom Richey, The Senate and the House of Representatives Explained

Id: iu8xZiqW3yg

Length: 6min 55sec (415 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2016