Suchergebnisse

For only the second time in close to a quarter century, the U.S. executive and legislative branches are in the hands of the same political party. Will this end governmental gridlock? Or will we discover that the problems of our political system run deeper than party labels? The contributors to this book examine the prospects for unified government during the Clinton presidency and, looking to the future, discuss possibilities for structural reform--in the political parties, in campaigning, in the Congress, and through amendments to the Constitution. The book draws on papers and comments presented at a "Government in Gridlock" conference cosponsored by Brookings and the Committee on the Constitutional System shortly after the inauguration of President Clinton. The contributors--present and former members of Congress and officials of the executive branch, Washington journalists, public opinion analysts, and political scientists--are Howard Baker, James MacGregor Burns, Lloyd Cutler, Thomas Downey, Ken Duberstein, David Gergen, Celinda Lake, Rep. Jim Leach, Thomas Mann, Andrea Mitchell, Tom Oliphant, Howard Paster, Jody Powell, Cokie Roberts, Donald Robinson, Warren Rudman, Barbara Sinclair, Hedrick Smith, and Steven Smith.

Since the original edition of Dynamics of the Party System was published in 1973, American politics have continued on a tumultuous course. In the vacuum left by the decline of the Democratic and Republican parties, single-interest groups have risen and flourished. Protest movements on the left and the New Right at the opposite pole have challenged and divided the major parties, and the Reagan Revolution--in reversing a fifty-year trend toward governmental expansion--may turn out to have revolutionized the party system too. In this edition, as in the first, current political trends and events are placed in a historical and theoretical context. Focusing upon three major realignments of the past--those of the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1930s--Sundquist traces the processes by which basic transformations of the country's two-party system occur. From the historical case studies, he fashions a theory as to the why and how of party realignment, then applies it to current and recent developments, through the first two years of the Reagan presidency and the midterm election of 1982. The theoretical sections of the first edition are refined in this one, the historical sections are revised to take account of recent scholarship, and the chapters dealing with the postwar period are almost wholly rewritten. The conclusion of the original work is, in general, confirmed: the existing party system is likely to be strengthened as public attention is again riveted on domestic economic issues, and the headlong trend of recent decades toward political independence and party disintegration reversed, at least for a time.

"Solid ground for optimism as well as cause for foreboding." So James L. Sundquist views the outcome of the struggle by the Congress in the 1970s to recapture powers and responsibilities that in preceding decades it had surrendered to a burgeoning presidency. The resurgence of the Congress began in 1973, in its historic constitutional clash with President Nixon. For half a century before that time, the Congress had acquiesced in its own decline vis-#65533;-vis the presidency, or had even initiated it, by building the presidential office as the center of leadership and coordination in the U.S. government and organizing itself not to initiate and lead but to react and follow. But the angry confrontation with President Nixon in the winter of 1972-73 galvanized the Congress to seek to regain what it considered its proper place in the constitutional scheme. Within a short period, it had created a new congressional budget process, prohibited impoundment of appropriated funds, enacted the War Powers Resolution, intensified oversight of the executive, extended the legislative veto over a wide range of executive actions, and vastly expanded its staff resources. The Decline and Resurgence of Congress, after reviewing relations between president and Congress over two centuries, traces the long series of congressional decisions that created the modern presidency and relates these to certain weaknesses that the Congress recognized in itself. It then recounts the events that marked the years of resurgence and evaluates the results. Finally, it analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the new Congress and appraises its potential for leadership and coordination.

A review essay on books by (1) Michael J. Lacey & Mary O. Furner (Eds), The State and Social Investigation in Britain and the United States (Washington, DC, & Cambridge, England: Woodrow Wilson Center Press & Cambridge U Press, 1993); & (2) David M. Ricci, The Transformation of American Politics: The New Washington and the Rise of Think Tanks (New Haven, CT: Yale U Press, 1993). The proceedings of the Wilson Center symposium in Washington, DC, edited by Lacey & Furner traces the evolution of public policy research organizations over 200 years in the US & GB, where they were established as part of the emerging liberal belief that scientific investigation could provide the foundation for fair legislation & distributive justice. Despite the early development of a self-conscious community of experts, the Lacey & Furner volume argues that the financial, industrial, & political elite gained control over these organizations & intellectual communities during the early 20th century. Ricci examines the development of contemporary think tanks in Washington, DC, & suggests that they were formed in reaction to the growing size, complexity, demands, & external influences of US politics. Although an increasing number of think tanks are politically & ideologically motivated, Ricci concludes that a great demand for impartial knowledge still exists in Washington, & truly independent think tanks still enjoy the greatest degree of respect & influence. T. Sevier