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Intro -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Dedication -- Preface -- Part One: Introduction -- 1 The Congressional Institution -- Congressional Structure -- Senators and Representatives -- The Congressional Organization -- External Participants -- Congressional Responsibilities -- 2 Congress as a Political System -- The Systems Approach -- The System -- Environment and Inputs to the System -- System Outputs -- Feedback -- Summary -- The Congressional System -- Congress as a Political System -- Inputs to the Congressional System -- Congressional Outputs -- Feedback and System Change -- Conclusion -- Part Two: The Congressional System -- 3 The Members of Congress: Securing a Place on Capitol Hill -- The Electoral Gamut -- Bicameralism -- Apportionment and Districting -- Incumbency -- Campaign Finance -- Strategic Politicians -- Nominations -- Campaigns -- Voters -- Election Results -- Presidential and Congressional Elections -- Summary -- The Members of Congress -- Social Background Attributes -- Personality Characteristics -- Life in Washington -- Conclusion -- 4 Congressional Committees -- Committees: General Considerations -- Committee Centrality in Congress -- Types of Committees -- Committee Variation -- Subcommittees -- Committee Assignments -- Methods of Assignment -- Criteria for Assignment -- Committee Leadership -- Powers of Committee Leaders -- Seniority -- Summary -- Committee Staff -- Relations Among Committees -- Conclusion -- 5 Congressional Rules and Procedures -- Rules and Procedures in the House -- Introduction of Legislation -- Committee Consideration -- To the Floor: Privileged Matter -- To the Floor: The Rules Committee -- On the Floor -- Rules and Procedures in the Senate -- Introduction of Legislation -- Committee Consideration -- On the Floor

When the Watergate dam broke, the ensuing flood of revelations about White House activities swept away a fundamental and cherished tenet of the contemporary liberal credo: the faith in the beneficence of the American presidency. Already suspect after John Kennedy's Bay of Pigs fiasco and Lyndon Johnson's Indochina policy, the dogma that "the cure for democracy is leadership," strong, forceful presidential leadership, sank beneath the waves of Watergate. The lesson seems clear that it is naive to assume that an innate goodness characterizes the presidency. Rather it seems safer to accept the proposition that executive power, unchecked or only loosely restrained, can be used for whatever purposes a particular president seeks to promote.