CONGRESS RESPONDS TO THE 20TH CENTURY

by SUNIL AHUJA, ROBERT E. DEWHIRST

Overview

Congress occupies a central place in the U.S. political system. Its reach into American society is vast and deep. Overtime, the issues it has confronted have increased in both quantity and complexity. At the beginning, Congress dealt with a handful of matters, whereas today it has its hands in every imaginable aspect of life. It has attempted to meet these challenges and has changed throughout the course of its history, prodded by factors both external and internal to the institution. The essays in this volume argue therefore that as society changed throughout the twentieth century, Congress responded to those changes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814251164
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2003
Series:	PARLIAMENTS & LEGISLATURES
Edition description:	1
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

	Series Editor's Foreword	ix
	Preface	xi
Chapter 1	Congress in the Twentieth Century Sunil Ahuja and Robert Dewhirst	1
I.	Congress and Its Members
Chapter 2	From Concept to Context: Representation in the Twentieth Century	21
Chapter 3	The Decline of Competition and Change in Congressional Elections	43
Chapter 4	Life and Work on the Hill: Careers, Norms, Staff, and Informal Caucuses	73
II.	Congress as an Institution
Chapter 5	Full Circle? Congressional Party Leadership during the Twentieth Century	97
Chapter 6	Sticky Rules: Procedural Change in the Twentieth-Century Congress	117
Chapter 7	Ebb and Flow in Twentieth-Century Committee Power	137
Chapter 8	The Decline and Rise of Congressional Parties in the Twentieth Century	157
Chapter 9	The Changing Context of the Yeas and Nays in Congress	185
III.	Congress and Other Institutions
Chapter 10	The Congress and the President in the Twentieth Century	205
Chapter 11	The Essential Bond: Congress and Interest Groups in the Twentieth Century	225
Chapter 12	Congress at Century's End	247
	List of Contributors	257
	Index	261