Why are there two elected houses (senate and congress) in the USA?

Answer 1

Most modern 'democracy' have two house for legislation, the UK has the house of Lords and House of Commons.

Bi cameral legislatures are necessary to put in the checks and balances on the power of each house, so neither can pass lousy laws with the other say so.

In actual fact this nonsense because the upper house is usually stuffed with members that will toe the party line anyway. But that's the main reason, for good reading on this the subject name is Separation of Powers.

Answer 2

Believe it or not, it is somewhat of a copy of the British government, where they have two houses also. However, instead of dividing the houses based upon economic status (Lords and Commoners) we divided it by states.

The House is based upon population of the state. The Senate is based upon the number of States with each state getting just two Senators.

It seemed like a far way to do it but it did not take them too long to figure out how to "rig" the Senate so the political power stayed concentrated with the original colonies and later, in the eastern part of the USA.

Notice the size of the states as you move west. They get progressively bigger and bigger. That was no accident. With each of the very large western states only having two votes, the same as the smaller eastern states, the power in the Senate stayed in the east. Today, the original 13 colonies (states) still have 26% of the power in the Senate, and the majority of the Senate power is still east of the Mississippi.

Had they set a size limit on the states, the power would have quickly passed from the original colonies to the newer states to the west.

Another bit of "rigging" of the system in the Congress, by not turning federal land in the west over to the states and their citizens, Congress slowed population growth in some of the western states. This helped to keep power in the House in the east also, as House representatives are based upon population.

As population in the south west grows rapidly, it would not surprise me much if we saw some Representatives and Senators in the east to propose a Constitutional Amendment on the grounds that the House is getting too large and we need to recalculate membership to keep the size of the House manageable. Whatever new population figure they use, will be such that the cut off point will benefit the east.

Answer 3

When the Founding Fathers were writing their Constitution, they couldn't decide whether there should be an equal number of representatives per state or if it should be proportionate to size of a state, so they had both. The House of Reps is propotionate to the size of each state, and the Senate has equal representation (2 reps per each state). It was only recently that the Senate became elected though...I think

Answer 4

Supposedlyly to represent the people of their democratic countries, I refer to the House of representatives and the senate in Australia. Truthfully, because the people of your country and mine [Australia] can get shunted from one politician to another untill election time then perhaps get an answer to their problems if [God willing] somebody gets into one of those positions with the intention of fulfulling their duties of proper governance. We here have what is an additional level called "special" ministers meaning they can play the political game really well and have enough mates to give them nothing jobs with wages likely to continue the rest of thier lives if they are fortuneate to jag two wins in a row. Their responsibilty in your country and ours are for the representatives to come up with legislation so the Congress there and the senate here can pass it back and forth so as to appear to be doing a job of work. e.g. Our Great Snowy river scheme had more political meetings and commissions of inquiries than the number of people who took to build the electro hydro electric power stations over a period of fifty years. it took about six years to complete after the meetings stopped and the work started. All politicians are there to be seen and elected. The bureacrats decide what actually gets done and that depends on what suits theirs lifestyles and needs. I suggest you read the book "Yes Minister" [English book] to understand politics. Harry

Answer 5

We have the house of representatives and the senate. The founding fathers devised the system as a means of checks and balances.

Answer 6

No. it will be extra useful. The low fee Care Act will bend the fee curve on well being care. Dodd-Frank will end the reckless cowboy capitalism in the economic industry. The EPA would be imposing regulations that we weren't enforced forcefully in the past. as a effect, the two your ecosystem and the economic gadget would be helped.

Answer 7

The same as there are more than one elected parties in the UK. This is democracy and having opposing parties stops the main party bringing in legislation to suit themselves, a bit like Hitlers Nazi party.

Answer 8

The senators overule the congressmen.

Answer 9

Because that's how many of our founding fathers needed jobs where no work was required, And they got paid.

Answer 10

no wonder our country is screwed up [ usa] look at the answers your getting on this question public schools i guess?