A remarkable work of scholarship, Congressional Government addresses the difficulties inherent in the American Constitution's separation of legislative and executive powers. Woodrow Wilson wrote this powerful political tract as his doctoral dissertation, and it contains the essence of the future president's political reasoning. A popular and critical success upon its 1885 publication, it remains remarkably vital more than a century later.
Wilson argues that in the years following the Civil War, the legislature received unfair advantages from the system of checks and balances, threatening the effectiveness of the constitutionally mandated separation of powers. He proposes the British parliamentary system as an alternative model of openness and responsibility, citing numerous examples of its effectiveness. Frequently quoted by constitutional scholars and advocates of government reform, Congressional Government remains essential to discussions of the balance of power within the U.S. government. This edition features an insightful Introduction by political theorist Walter Lippmann.