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What's happened to the longstanding traditions of civility and decorum within the world's greatest deliberative body? While the Senate hasn't yet become as rancorous as the House, over the past three decades it has grown noticeably less collegial. In Esteemed Colleagues, leading congressional scholars address the extent to which civility has declined in the U.S. Senate, and how that decline has affected our political system. The contributors analyze the relationships between Senators, shaped by high levels of both individualism and partisanship, and how these ties shape the deliberation of issues before the chamber. Civility and deliberation have changed in recent decades, up to and including the Clinton impeachment process, and the book sheds light on both the current American politics and the broad issues of representation, responsiveness, and capacity within our governmental institutions.
To so many Americans, Congress seems obsolete or useless. Why do we even bother with it? Why Congress offers a defense of Congress as the indispensable branch of government, alongside a compelling account of how the institution has become so dysfunctional. At its best in the mid-20th century, Congress solved immense challenges like civil rights, but Wallach's history shows how the subsequent rise of powerful leadership and the decline of committees have left Congress divided and decrepit. As society feels divided and politics feels gridlocked, Why Congress argues that only a revival of legislative deliberation can resolve our most pressing challenges.
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The party whips are essential components of the U.S. legislative system, responsible for marshalling party votes and keeping House and Senate party members in line. In The Whips, C. Lawrence Evans offers a comprehensive exploration of coalition building and legislative strategy in the U.S. House and Senate, ranging from the relatively bipartisan, committee-dominated chambers of the 1950s to the highly polarized congresses of the 2000s. In addition to roll call votes and personal interviews with lawmakers and staff, Evans examines the personal papers of dozens of former leaders of the House and Senate, especially former whips. These records allowed Evans to create a database of nearly 1,500 i...
Includes Proceedings of the annual meeting.