James Madison Rules America examines congressional party legislative and electoral strategy in the context of our constitutional separation of powers. In a departure from recent books that have described Congress as "the broken branch" or the "Second Civil War," William Connelly argues that partisanship, polarization and the permanent campaign are an inevitable part of congressional politics. The strategic conundrum confronting both parties in the House of Representatives - whether to be part of the "government" or part of the "opposition" - provides evidence of how concretely James Madison's Constitution governs the behavior of politicians to this day. Drawing on a two-hundred year debate within American political thought among the Federalists, Anti-Federalists, Alexis de Tocqueville and Woodrow Wilson, James Madison Rules America is as topical as current debates over partisan polarization and the permanent campaign, while being grounded in two enduring and important schools of thought within political science: pluralism and party government.
Autorentext
William F. Connelly, Jr is a John K. Boardman Politics Professor at Washington and Lee University.
Zusammenfassung
James Madison Rules America examines congressional party legislative and electoral strategy in the context of our constitutional separation of powers. In a departure from recent books that have described Congress as 'the broken branch' or the 'Second Civil War,' William Connelly argues that partisanship, polarization and the permanent campaign are an inevitable part of congressional politics. The strategic conundrum confronting both parties in the House of Representatives, whether to be part of the government or part of the opposition provides evidence of how concretely James Madison's Constitution governs the behavior of politicians to this day. Drawing on a two-hundred year debate within American political thought among the Federalists, Anti-Federalists, Alexis de Tocqueville and Woodrow Wilson, James Madison Rules America is as topical as current debates over partisan polarization and the permanent campaign, while being grounded in two enduring and important schools of thought within political science: pluralism and party government.
Inhalt
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Congressional Party Strategy
Chapter 2: House Democrats: The Wilderness Years
Chapter 3: House Republicans: Newt the Anti-Federalist?
Chapter 4: Woodrow Wilson's Congressional Government
Chapter 5: Alexis de Tocqueville's Congress
Chapter 6: The Federalist Revisited
Chapter 7: Practical Consequences of Constitutional Principle: The 1790s
Chapter 8: Practical Consequences of Constitutional Principle: The 1980s and 1990s
Chapter 9: The Constitution Governs: Partisanship and Bipartisanship
Bibliography
Index
About the Author