Founding Principles Chapter Three: Congress from Bowdoin College on Vimeo.

Andrew Rudalevige, Bowdoin’s Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, reflects on the consistently bad approval ratings scored by Congress in the Washington Post political science blog, The Monkey Cage, asking, “If Congress is so bad, why do we keep so many of its members around for so many years?”

Every week this summer, The Monkey Cage is publishing an episode of “Founding Principles,” a series of short videos presented by Rudalevige explaining how American government works. The latest episode—the third of fifteen—explains the role of Congress.