Synopses & Reviews
The American Congress provides the most insightful, up-to-date treatment of congressional politics available in an undergraduate text. Informed by the authors' Capitol Hill experience and nationally recognized scholarship, this book presents a crisp introduction to all major features of Congress: its party and committee systems, leadership, and voting and floor activity. The American Congress has the most in-depth discussion of the place of the president, the courts, and interest groups in congressional policy making available in a text. The authors blend an emphasis on recent developments in congressional politics with a clear discussion of the rules of the game, the history of key features of Congress, and stories from recent Congresses that bring politics to life. No other text weaves into the discussion the important ideas of recent political science research. The book includes the most comprehensive list of suggested readings and Internet resources on Congress to date.
Review
From the Fifth Edition: "The American Congress by Smith, Roberts, and Vander Wielen is a superb textbook. I routinely assign it in my undergraduate courses on the U.S. Congress. The Smith textbook is concise, extremely well conceptualized, argued, and written, and perfectly pitched for undergraduates."
- Sarah Binder, George Washington University
Review
"Smith, Roberts, and Vander Wielen present ideas, not just anecdotes, stories, or mind-numbing facts. They present the debates, in the literature and within our society, about how we should think about Congress and its activities. The outcome of these debates, the ideas that win, shape everything from voting to lawmaking to judicial interpretation of statutes. Nowhere are these ideas so comprehensively laid out as in this textbook. This is why I use it, and it is the principal advantage that this text has over the competition."
- Mathew D. McCubbins, University of California at San Diego
Synopsis
The American Congress is an up-to-date, well-informed undergraduate textbook on congressional politics.
Synopsis
Informed by the authors' Capitol Hill experience and nationally recognized scholarship, this sixth edition of The American Congress presents the most insightful, up-to-date treatment of congressional politics available in an undergraduate textbook.
About the Author
Steven S. Smith is Kate M. Gregg Professor of Social Sciences and Director of the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis. He has authored or co-authored seven books and many articles on congressional politics, including Call to Order: Floor Politics in the House and Senate, Party Influence in Congress, and Politics or Principle: Filibustering in the U.S. Senate, and has coauthored several articles and a book on Russian parliamentary politics. He is a former Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and has taught at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and George Washington University.Jason M. Roberts is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include American politics, the U.S. Congress, elections, and Supreme Court nominations. He is the co-author of Why Not Parties?: Party Effects in the United States Senate and has published articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics.Ryan J. Vander Wielen is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Temple University. He was previously a Fellow in the Political Institutions and Public Choice Program at Michigan State University and at the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis. He has recently been published in Political Analysis and Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review.
Table of Contents
1. The American Congress: modern trends; 2. Representation and lawmaking in Congress: the constitutional and historical context; 3. Congressional elections and policy alignments; 4. Members, goals, resources, and strategies; 5. Parties and leaders; 6. The standing committees; 7. The rules of the legislative game; 8. The floor and voting; 9. Congress and the president; 10. Congress and the courts; 11. Congress, lobbyists, and interest groups; 12. Congress and budget politics; Appendix: introduction to the spatial theory of legislating.