Author: United States. CongressPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1324
Book Description
Congressional Record
Author: United States. CongressPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1324
Book Description
Register of Debates in Congress
Author: United States. CongressPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 488
Book Description
A Manual of Parliamentary Practice
Author: Thomas JeffersonThe Senate Syndrome
Author: Steven S. SmithPublisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806145927
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 455
Book Description
With its rock-bottom approval ratings, acrimonious partisan battles, and apparent inability to do its legislative business, the U.S. Senate might easily be deemed unworthy of attention, if not downright irrelevant. This book tells us that would be a mistake. Because the Senate has become the place where the policy-making process most frequently stalls, any effective resolution to our polarized politics demands a clear understanding of how the formerly august legislative body once worked and how it came to the present crisis. Steven S. Smith provides that understanding in The Senate Syndrome. Like the Senate itself, Smith’s account is grounded in history. Countering a cacophony of inexpert opinion and a widespread misunderstanding of political and legislative history, the book fills in a world of missing information—about debates among senators concerning fundamental democratic processes and the workings of institutional rules, procedures, and norms. And Smith does so in a clear and engaging manner. He puts the present problems of the Senate—the “Senate syndrome,” as he calls them—into historical context by explaining how particular ideas and procedures were first framed and how they transformed with the times. Along the way he debunks a number of myths about the Senate, many perpetuated by senators themselves, and makes some pointed observations about the media’s coverage of Congress. The Senate Syndrome goes beyond explaining such seeming technicalities as the difference between regular filibusters and post-cloture filibusters, the importance of chair rulings, the changing role of the parliamentarian, and the debate over whether appeals of points of order should be subject to cloture margins, to show why understanding them matters. At stake is resolution of the Senate syndrome, and the critical underlying struggle between majority rule and minority rights in American policy making.
Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in the Celebrated Campaign of 1858 in Illinois
Author: Abraham LincolnPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Campaign debates
Languages : en
Pages : 582
Book Description
Beyond Ideology
Author: Frances E. LeePublisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226470776
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
The congressional agenda, Frances Lee contends, includes many issues about which liberals and conservatives generally agree. Even over these matters, though, Democratic and Republican senators tend to fight with each other. What explains this discord? Beyond Ideology argues that many partisan battles are rooted in competition for power rather than disagreement over the rightful role of government. The first book to systematically distinguish Senate disputes centering on ideological questions from the large proportion of them that do not, this volume foregrounds the role of power struggle in partisan conflict. Presidential leadership, for example, inherently polarizes legislators who can influence public opinion of the president and his party by how they handle his agenda. Senators also exploit good government measures and floor debate to embarrass opponents and burnish their own party’s image—even when the issues involved are broadly supported or low-stakes. Moreover, Lee contends, the congressional agenda itself amplifies conflict by increasingly focusing on issues that reliably differentiate the parties. With the new president pledging to stem the tide of partisan polarization, Beyond Ideology provides a timely taxonomy of exactly what stands in his way.
How Our Laws are Made
Author: John V. SullivanPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 72
Book Description
Exceptions to the Rule
Author: Molly E. ReynoldsPublisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815729979
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Special rules enable the Senate to act despite the filibuster. Sometimes. Most people believe that, in today's partisan environment, the filibuster prevents the Senate from acting on all but the least controversial matters. But this is not exactly correct. In fact, the Senate since the 1970s has created a series of special rules—described by Molly Reynolds as “majoritarian exceptions”—that limit debate on a wide range of measures on the Senate floor. The details of these exemptions might sound arcane and technical, but in practice they have enabled the Senate to act even when it otherwise seemed paralyzed. Important examples include procedures used to pass the annual congressional budget resolution, enact budget reconciliation bills, review proposals to close military bases, attempt to prevent arms sales, ratify trade agreements, and reconsider regulations promulgated by the executive branch. Reynolds argues that these procedures represent a key instrument of majority party power in the Senate. They allow the majority—even if it does not have the sixty votes needed to block a filibuster—to produce policies that will improve its future electoral prospects, and thus increase the chances it remains the majority party. As a case study, Exceptions to the Rule examines the Senate's role in the budget reconciliation process, in which particular congressional committees are charged with developing procedurally protected proposals to alter certain federal programs in their jurisdictions. Created as a way of helping Congress work through tricky budget issues, the reconciliation process has become a powerful tool for the majority party to bypass the minority and adopt policy changes in hopes that it will benefit in the next election cycle.
America's Great Debate
Author: Fergus M. BordewichPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439124612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496
Book Description
Chronicles the 1850s appeals of Western territories to join the Union as slave or free states, profiling period balances in the Senate, Henry Clay's attempts at compromise, and the border crisis between New Mexico and Texas.
The Last Great Senate
Author: Ira ShapiroPublisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 1586489364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513
Book Description
Describes the statesmen who participated in the last glory days of the Senate, describing their leadership through the crisis years of the 1970s before the 1980 election signaled the start of a period of diminished effectiveness.