Why is U.S. Congress divided into Senate and HoR?

Question

When you look at the Parliments or Congress of other countries, it is not divided into 2 branches like the U.S. Congress. What is the purpose of U.S. congress being divided into 2 branches? What purpose does the Senate and HoR each serve?

Answer 1

The idea was originally to have a legislative body that represented the people directly (the House of Representatives) and one that represented each state equally (the Senate). Thus, the House was (and still is) elected directly by the people (the only part of government that was so originally). Further, the House's membership was decided based on the number of people in a state, so states with large populations have more Representatives. The Senate was to represent the states, and so each state has two Senators regardless of the number of people in a state. Also, the Senators were originally elected by the state legislature and not by the people of the state directly.

The purpose of all of this was a compromise in the early part of the Republic so that the small states would not suffer at the hands of the larger states, since each chamber was considered to have equal say in legislation. Except, that is, for certain powers like taxation. The founders decided that new taxation should be started by the House of Representatives only because the Representatives were directly accountable to the people. Therefore, certain things like tax bills can only be started in the House.

By the way, there are some legislative bodies on other countries that have two houses, such as the British Parliament (they have a House of Lords and a House of Commons). Also, most state legislatures also have two houses.

I hope this is helpful to you. May God bless and keep you.

Answer 2

The reason is that the participants have different terms, the Senators have
6 years and therefore are more representative of the system and continuity
of government, while the House of Representives can be replaced very
easily by the people (2 years), so they more directly reflect the "wim" of
the electorate.

That is, the House is supposed to more directly represent the current
polls, if you will, whereas the Senate slows down response to things that
it considers "rash".

Also, the Senate has 2 senators per state, whereas the House has
a number determined by the population of the state. This balances the
rights of the people against the rights of regions.

Answer 3

The senate has 2 senators for every state

The house reps are based on the states population.

The reason it is split up that way is to give a more even playing field.

California would have many more reps in the house than say rhode island. yes they each would only have 2 in the senate.

Its a form of check and balance in a way.
They both handle the same issues and after something is passed in the senate it is then passed to the house for a vote.

Answer 4

Our Founding Fathers didn't believe that putting power in the hands of one man was a good idea (King George III all over again). They also believed it was unfair to have one house in which representatives were selected based on population (the states with lower populations would be underrepresented), so they did a mix of these plus a final twist. We've got the House, where representation is based on population of a state alone, we've got the senate, where each state is equally represented with two senators each, and the president who can be checked by the houses. Thus, we have a system of checks and balances which make our system more effective than most systems out there.

Answer 5

when the founding fathers wrote the constitution large (population wise) states wanted the congress to be only one house based on population. The smaller states (again population wise) wanted a equal number of representatives regardless of population. "a small colony has her all at stake" wrote one delagate "but then so does a large state". at the time all rebels (founding fathers) faced the hangmans noose for treason, against the English crown . A compromise was reached and it was two houses one based on population one an equal number for each colony (state). Of course there were other reasons for this great compronise as well the main one being that a large house would be hard for a few induviduals to control so the figure was set at one representative for each 40,000 people. if that were still followed you would have about 8000 representatives in the capitol city. i think this would be a good thing as it would force extremists to the margins rather quickly.

Answer 6

The Senate (100) are 2 from each state giving all states equal representation. The H of Rep has about 435 members with the number friom each state varying as to the population of each state.
This is so there is a checks and balance among the different houses. neither has more power.

Answer 7

the founding fathers didnt want the goverment to become to strong and set up checks and balances between the differnt parts of goverment. As for there purpose they both vote on laws and both must approve of the law. The senate has 100 members (2 senators from each state) and the house of rep. is based on the population of the state. i think the house has arounf 465 members but you will want to look that up

Answer 8

It's part of our brilliant system of checks and balances. Each state gets equal representation in terms of senators but each state gets a number of representatives based on population. And each state representative is supposed to represent his/her specific district in their home state while the senator represents the state as a whole. So if we have a concern or complaint we can go to the representative of our district and get a bigger voice in Washington.

Answer 9

It leads to greater checks and balances, because you don't have as much power concentrated in one place. John Adams, among others, pushed for the bicameral system in the days of the nation's founding. And I think it was very wise.

Parliaments of other countries (especially in Europe) are cumbersome, because the parliamentary system leads to complete changes of governments often. (Italy has had something like 36 different governments since WW2).

The USA has had the same government since day one. Different administrations, but same government. That is in part due to the bicameral system, which has worked beautifully since its inception.

Love, Jack.

Answer 10

Because the senate gives equal opportunity to each state regardless of the population, and the HR gives more seats to the states with larger population.