Synopses & Reviews
THE CONTEMPORARY CONGRESS offers concise coverage of all the foundations of a course on Congress. From the underlying theory of representative democracy and the process of elections to committee dynamics and the legislative process on the House and Senate floor to the relationship between Congress and the Presidency under unified and divided party government, THE CONTEMPORARY CONGRESS includes a view into the rules, politics, and party strategy that determine the policy decisions made every day in the U.S. Congress, especially important in the contemporary era of strong Republican Party government.
About the Author
Burdett A. Loomis is a professor of political science at the University of Kansas. He received his Ph.D. form the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1974, served as an American Political Science Congressional Fellow in 1975-1976, and has taught at the University of Kansas since 1979. He has written on a variety of topics, including Congress, interest groups, state legislatures, and public policy. In 1984, Loomis directed the Congressional Management Project, which produced the first of many editions of SETTING COURSE: A CONGRESSIONAL MANAGEMENT GUIDE. Aside from teaching courses on congressional politics, interest groups, and policy making, since 1983 Loomis has directed public internship programs in Washington and Topeka. He currently serves as chair of the political science department and Interim Director of the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at the University of Kansas. Wendy J. Schiller (Ph.D., University of Rochester) is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University. She was Legislative Assistant for Governor Mario M. Cuomo and for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, and has been Guest Scholar and Research Fellow at the Brookings Institute. Schiller is coauthor with Burdett Loomis on THE CONTEMPORARY CONGRESS (2003, 2005), and author of PARTNERS AND RIVALS: REPRESENTATION IN THE U.S. SENATE (2000). Her current research focuses on the indirect and direct election of U.S. senators. She teaches courses on a wide range of American politics topics including Introduction to the American Political Process, The American Presidency, the Philosophy of the Founding, Parties and Interest Groups, and American Political Institutions.
Table of Contents
Preface. About the Author. 1. Drama of Representation. 2. Evolution of Congressional Decentralization and Recentralization. 3. The Changing Environment of Congressional Politics. 4. Congressional Elections: Roots of the Centrifugal Congress. 5. The Legislative Process and the Rules of the Game. 6. Parties and Leadership Capturing the Congress. 7. Congressional Committees. 8. The Individual Enterprise. 9. Presidential-Congressional Relations. 10. The Competitive Congress. Index.