Download or read book The Decline and Resurgence of Congress written by James L. Sundquist and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2002-09-13 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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-à-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.

Download or read book Congress Resurgent written by Randall B. Ripley and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of Congress's role in shaping American foreign policy

Download or read book Resurgent written by Ken Blackwell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-05-31 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AMERICA , THIS IS YOU R ROAD MAP TO THE FUTURE—A RETURN TO THE GUIDIN G PRINCI PLES OF OU R FOUNDIN G FATHERS . . . The United States is at a crossroads. Our national debt is rising, our social programs are unsustainable, and our government is expanding at an alarming rate. As American citizens, we have a choice. We can continue on our current path of policies that threaten our freedoms, our families, and our finances—or we can join the powerful new resurgence of the age-old principles that are the foundation of the U.S. Constitution. This book is a wake-up call. Written by acclaimed conservative leaders Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, it is a back-to-basics action plan inspired by the original words and beliefs of our nation’s forefathers. Using the U.S. Constitution, the authors guide us through our current political minefield, showing how both Democrats and Republicans have led our country astray. They reveal startling connections between the crash of the economy, the collapse of the family, and the rise of big government. They lay out a policy agenda of constitutional fixes for our greatest national problems, from retirement, to education, to social issues, to taxes. Finally, they offer Republicans a step-by-step plan for rebuilding the GOP from the ground up, for winning both Congress and the White House, and for changing directions on the road to our future. The time is now, America. The resurgence is under way; we should let nothing stop us. More than two centuries ago, our forefathers gave us the dream and the directions—spelled out in black and white. Now more than ever, we need to embrace those principles and get our country back on track.

Download or read book Congress Overwhelmed written by Timothy M. LaPira and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress today is falling short. Fewer bills, worse oversight, and more dysfunction. But why? In a new volume of essays, the contributors investigate an underappreciated reason Congress is struggling: it doesn’t have the internal capacity to do what our constitutional system requires of it. Leading scholars chronicle the institutional decline of Congress and the decades-long neglect of its own internal investments in the knowledge and expertise necessary to perform as a first-rate legislature. Today’s legislators and congressional committees have fewer—and less expert and experienced—staff than the executive branch or K Street. This leaves them at the mercy of lobbyists and the administrative bureaucracy. The essays in Congress Overwhelmed assess Congress’s declining capacity and explore ways to upgrade it. Some provide broad historical scope. Others evaluate the current decay and investigate how Congress manages despite the obstacles. Collectively, they undertake the most comprehensive, sophisticated appraisal of congressional capacity to date, and they offer a new analytical frame for thinking about—and improving—our underperforming first branch of government.

Download or read book The Machine written by Lee Fang and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Machine sheds light on all the dark corners of the resurgent right, laying out its modus operandi in short, accessible chapters.

Download or read book Foreign Policy and Congress written by Marie T. Henehan and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the traditional view of foreign policy making in the United States, the President is considered the primary authority and Congress is seen as playing a subsidiary role. Marie T. Henehan looks at the effects of events in the international system on both the content of foreign policy and what actions Congress takes on foreign policy. Henehan argues that the only way to understand the way congressional behavior varies over time is by looking at the rise and resolution of critical issues in foreign policy, which in turn have their origin in the international system. When a critical foreign policy issue arises, congressional activity and attempts to influence foreign policy increase. Once the debate is resolved and one side wins, a consensus emerges and Congress settles into a more passive role. Using a data set consisting of all roll call votes on foreign policy issues taken by the Senate from 1897 to 1984 to generate indicators of Congressional behavior, together with the rise and fall of critical issues in international relations, Henehan is able to develop a more nuanced understanding of Congress's role in foreign policy making over time. In recent years political scientists have begun to consider the impact of the international system on domestic policy. Part of the difficulty of some of this work, as well as work on Congress's role in foreign policy, is that it has been limited in terms of time and the number of events the analysis considered, depending on case studies. This book offers a systematic consideration of the effects of international events on domestic politics, crossing many different kinds of international activity, and provides a unique longitudinal view of Congressional action on foreign policy. This book will be of interest to scholars of international relations, American foreign policy making, and Congress. Marie T. Henehan is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University.

Download or read book An Introduction to the U S Congress written by Charles B. Cushman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does Congress do? How does it do it? Why is it such a complicated institution? This concise primer offers students and general readers a brief and systematic introduction to Congress and the role it plays in the US political system. Drawing on his experience as a former Congressional staff member, the author explores the different political natures of the House and Senate, examines Congress's interaction with other branches of the Federal government, and looks ahead to the domestic and foreign challenges that are likely to drive the Congressional agenda for decades to come. The book provides revealing insights into the sometimes-contradictory Congressional responsibilities of representation and lawmaking; oversight and appropriation; and managing and organizing the government. It includes a case study (on the formation of the Department of Homeland Security) that sheds light on Congress's often-complicated procedures. The book also includes boxed features on Congressional action - highlighting such topics as file sharing and student loans - that show students how Congress's work affects their lives. Chapter-ending lists of web resources add to the book's usefulness.

Download or read book Congress and Civil Military Relations written by Colton C. Campbell and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the president is the commander-in-chief, Congress plays a very significant and underappreciated role in US civil-military relations, the relationship between the armed forces and the civilian leadership that commands it. Indeed, we cannot understand civil-military relations in the United States without an appreciation of Congress. The ebbs and flows in US civil-military relations depend in part on congressional use of four main tools available to provide direction to the military. These include the selection of military officers, determining how much authority is delegated to the military, oversight of the military, and establishing incentives for appropriate military behavior. Congress sets the military's budget, influences military policy by calling officers to testify, sets or changes personnel policy, and approves or rejects a host of initiatives from officer promotion to base closures. This unique book will help readers better understand the role of Congress in military affairs and national and international security policy.

Download or read book Committees in Congress written by Christopher J. Deering and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a comprehensive examination of the origins, development, and status of committees and committee systems in both the House and Senate, this edition carries on the book′s tradition of comprehensive coverage, empirical richness, and theoretical relevance in its discussion of these essential and distinguishing features of our national legislature. While the second edition focused on the "post-reform" committee systems, addressed the shifts in the internal distribution of power, and hinted at the forces that had already begun to undermine the power of committees, this edition updates that analysis and looks at the reforms that evolvied under the Republicans. It offers complete coverage of the rules and structural changes to the House and Senate committee systems. It extends its discussion of committee power and influence in the context of the "Contract with America," Republican reforms, and the inter-party warfare on Capitol Hill.

Download or read book Congress and the Cold War written by Robert David Johnson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-11-21 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first historical interpretation of the congressional response to the entire Cold War. Using a wide variety of sources, including several manuscript collections opened specifically for this study, the book challenges the popular and scholarly image of a weak Cold War Congress, in which the unbalanced relationship between the legislative and executive branches culminated in the escalation of the US commitment in Vietnam, which in turn paved the way for a congressional resurgence best symbolized by the passage of the War Powers Act in 1973. Instead, understanding the congressional response to the Cold War requires a more flexible conception of the congressional role in foreign policy, focused on three facets of legislative power: the use of spending measures; the internal workings of a Congress increasingly dominated by subcommittees; and the ability of individual legislators to affect foreign affairs by changing the way that policymakers and the public considered international questions.

Download or read book House Hearing 109th Congress written by U.S. Government Printing Office (Gpo) and published by BiblioGov. This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Making of US Foreign Policy written by John Dumbrell and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fully revised and updated, this new edition analyses the relationship between the process and substance of US foreign policy since the mid 1960s.

Download or read book More Than a Feeling written by Adam J. Ramey and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whatever you think about the widening divide between Democrats and Republicans, ideological differences do not explain why politicians from the same parties, who share the same goals and policy preferences, often argue fiercely about how best to attain them. This perplexing misalignment suggests that we are missing an important piece of the puzzle. Political scientists have increasingly drawn on the relationship between voters’ personalities and political orientation, but there has been little empirically grounded research looking at how legislators’ personalities influence their performance on Capitol Hill. With More Than a Feeling, Adam J. Ramey, Jonathan D. Klingler, and Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr. have developed an innovative framework incorporating what are known as the Big Five dimensions of personality—openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—to improve our understanding of political behavior among members of Congress. To determine how strongly individuals display these traits, the authors identified correlates across a wealth of data, including speeches, campaign contributions and expenditures, committee involvement, willingness to filibuster, and even Twitter feeds. They then show how we might expect to see the influence of these traits across all aspects of Congress members’ political behavior—from the type and quantity of legislation they sponsor and their style of communication to whether they decide to run again or seek a higher office. They also argue convincingly that the types of personalities that have come to dominate Capitol Hill in recent years may be contributing to a lot of the gridlock and frustration plaguing the American political system.

Download or read book American Political Parties written by Jeffrey E. Cohen and published by C Q Press College. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is the era of decline that began in the late 1960s over? Are the parties in a new era of rebuilding? In what direction are the parties headed? This study explores historical and contemporary material on the US political parties.

Download or read book After the End written by James M. Scott and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-21 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the political landscape emerging from the end of the Cold War, making U.S. foreign policy has become more difficult, due in part to less clarity and consensus about threats and interests. In After the End James M. Scott brings together a group of scholars to explore the changing international situation since 1991 and to examine the characteristics and patterns of policy making that are emerging in response to a post–Cold War world. These essays examine the recent efforts of U.S. policymakers to recast the roles, interests, and purposes of the United States both at home and abroad in a political environment where policy making has become increasingly decentralized and democratized. The contributors suggest that foreign policy leadership has shifted from White House and executive branch dominance to an expanded group of actors that includes the president, Congress, the foreign policy bureaucracy, interest groups, the media, and the public. The volume includes case studies that focus on China, Russia, Bosnia, Somalia, democracy promotion, foreign aid, and NAFTA. Together, these chapters describe how policy making after 1991 compares to that of other periods and suggest how foreign policy will develop in the future. This collection provides a broad, balanced evaluation of U.S. foreign policy making in the post–Cold War setting for scholars, teachers, and students of U.S. foreign policy, political science, history, and international studies. Contributors. Ralph G. Carter, Richard Clark, A. Lane Crothers, I. M. Destler, Ole R. Holsti, Steven W. Hook, Christopher M. Jones, James M. McCormick, Jerel Rosati, Jeremy Rosner, John T. Rourke, Renee G. Scherlen, Peter J. Schraeder, James M. Scott, Jennifer Sterling-Folker, Rick Travis, Stephen Twing

Download or read book US Policy Towards Cuba written by Jessica Gibbs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-12-14 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: US Policy Towards Cuba is a comprehensive examination of U.S. policy towards Cuba after the Cold War, from 1989-2008. It discusses the competition between Congress and the executive for control of policy, and the domestic interests which shaped policymaking and led to the passage of two major pieces of legislation (the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, better known as the Helms-Burton Act) which tightened the embargo on Cuba and were fiercely resisted by U.S. allies. There is also a strong focus on migration as an issue in U.S.-Cuban relations. The book then moves on to examine U.S. policy during the second Clinton administration, when the interest group environment altered for two principal reasons. Firstly the case of the small Cuban rafter boy, Elian Gonzalez, attracted huge media coverage and led to public questioning of the wisdom of current policy, and secondly the agricultural lobby, keen to export to Cuba, lobbied for the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which finally passed in 2000. The final section of the book analyses democracy promotion efforts under President George W. Bush. Seeking to cast light upon the US policymaking process, Gibbs demonstrates that U.S. Cuba policy represents a rather extreme example of the influence of domestic politics on policymaking, and provides a significant contribution to this important and under-researched aspect of U.S. foreign policy.

Download or read book Competing Principals written by Forrest Maltzman and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses the role of congressional committees in the legislative process