Is the House or Senate More Powerful

Why could the senate be regarded as superior in status and power to the house of representatives? (15) Target: Linking back to question One way senate is regarded as superior to the House of Rep as they have more significant exclusive powers. For example, in the House of Representatives they initiate money bills, but this is only an initiating process and by the end of the process, the considerations are changed and the bills will look very different at the end then what the house of representatives had suggested. However, the Senate can be seen as superior to the house of representatives, as the Senate has the power of confirming appointments of the supreme court and the Executive. This is important as they confirm and end the process, if the Senate disagreed with an appointment – they can veto, which is significantly important as they effectively decide if the appointments are fair, for example with supreme court appointments – they are effectively deciding who will be in the supreme court, ruling what is constitutional and unconstitutional for their whole life. The fact that the senate confirms such important appointments whereas the house mostly initiates and starts of process, is important as the Senate mostly has the most important and last say. The senate could also be regarded as superior as more presidents have been Senators before their presidency rather that Representatives. Barack Obama had served as Senator of Illinois directly before his presidency. In recent years there has been more senators that have become presidents than representatives, which shows that perhaps they have more experience in politics and knowledge to go into the role of president. Senators are seen as a political promotion from being a representative. Firstly, there are only 100 senators, 2 from each state, whereas there are 435 representatives, this can indicate that getting into the senate is harder than getting into the house as it requires more people of the state to vote for them and allow a majority, whereas there are mostly more representatives than senators in the states – so representatives require less of a majority. Senators having a harder and more difficult process into the senate than the representatives enhances that they are more prestige as becoming senator is not as easy and requires a higher popular mandate of the states whereas the representatives are required a majority by districts. To be vote as a senator, most of the time the electorate tend to vote for those with more experience – most of the time as being a representative, showing and enhancing how a senator is a political promotion, showing they are more superior, as they are seen as higher role. House of representatives face re-election every 2 years, whereas the Senate faces re-election every 6 years. The election being every 2 years in the representatives, means that they have to listen more to the people of their states and districts when looking at legislation rather than the supporting the party. To be able to be re-elected for the role in the house, the representatives must listen to the people they represent rather than decide and vote on what they believe in and their party. However, because the Senate has a longer amount of time in office, of 6 years, they are not as obliged as representatives to listen to the people and can vote on what they believe in and support their party. As they are re-elected every 6 years they can be more influencial than the representatives who have a shorter term. The senate can also have more power as they are more responsible in longer term issues and the representatives are responsible for shorter term issues. Lastly the senate has lower numbers of 100, and the representatives have more of 435 representatives. Having a larger number of politicians in a branch can cause more conflict and adversial politics – making decisions longer and harder, reducing their power as there tends to be less agreement. 435 representatives can also lead to harder representation, because it perhaps could be harder to voice your views to a larger number of representatives. However, the 100 senators, allows for equal representation of the states within the house – making them more prestige as all senators have an equal amount of power in voicing their views and representating the people of their state. A small number of senators to get through to express opinions is much easier in the senate because there is much less politicians than the house of representatives, giving them much more influence and therefore more power.