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The United States Congress has been described as dysfunctional, gridlocked, polarized, hyperpartisan, chaotic, and do-nothing. In Changing Cultures in Congress, Donald R. Wolfensberger explains the institutional dynamics behind Congress's devolution to a body plagued by a win-at-any-cost mentality and a culture of perpetual campaigning.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Rolling Rules: From Level Ground to Partisan Tilt
2. Making House Rules
3. Procedural Triage for Health Care Reform
4. Fraying Purse Strings
5. Whither the War Power?
6. Congress and the Iran Nuclear Deal: Rational Reactor or Design Flaw?
7. Governing in a Political World
Appendix
Notes
Glossary
Index
About the author
Donald R. Wolfensberger, a fellow at both the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Bipartisan Policy Center, is the author of Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial (2000). He previously directed the Congress Project at the Wilson Center after spending twenty-eight years as a staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives, including as staff director of the House Rules Committee.
Summary
The United States Congress has been described as dysfunctional, gridlocked, polarized, hyperpartisan, chaotic, and do-nothing. In Changing Cultures in Congress, congressional scholar Donald R. Wolfensberger explains the institutional dynamics behind Congress’s devolution from a respected legislative institution to a body plagued by a win-at-any-cost mentality and a culture of perpetual campaigning.
In both a historical and present-day account of congressional dysfunction, Wolfensberger explores the causes of legislative standstill and the methods used by majorities and minorities that have led to today’s policy paralysis. He describes how Congress has gradually abandoned its commitment to fair and neutral procedures that safeguard both majority rule and minority rights in favor of “power House rules”—procedures and processes that advantage the majority party’s electoral goals as opposed to neutral rules that preserve minority party and individual member rights to full participation in the legislative process. Through historical sketches and case studies from the past decade under both Republican and Democratic majorities, he shows how both parties have gamed what the founders intended would be an impartial set of legislative rules into a system that advantages majorities and marginalizes minorities. Digging deeper than superficial partisan explanations, Wolfensberger gives a thorough and persuasive explanation for our legislative leaders’ inability to find substantive policy solutions that are in the national interest.
Additional text
Changing Cultures in Congress speaks to scholars of the legislative branch, those working within it, as well as those simply seeking to better understand it. Given its timeliness and the seemingly intractable levels of polarization and partisan animosity, it is likely to be informative for many years to come as well.
