The Dysfunctional Congress?: The Individual Roots Of An Institutional Dilemma / Edition 1

by Kenneth R Mayer, David T Canon, Kenneth R. Mayer

Overview

Congress is in trouble. The public doubts its capacity to solve our nation's problems and the current majority party is attempting to shift the balance of institutional power away from Congress and toward the President. In The Dysfunctional Congress? , David Canon and Kenneth Mayer maintain that Congress's difficulties are the result of two fundamental flaws in the system: a misunderstanding of Congress's institutional role within our governmental process, and an ongoing conflict within Congress between actions that are individually rational for members of Congress, but are not in the collective interest of society more broadly. Most of the reforms suggested by well-intentioned outsiders—term limits, a balanced budget amendment, cutting Congressional staff, eliminating Congressional perks—skirt these two central issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813326993
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/28/1999
Series:	Florida History and Culture Series
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)
Lexile:	1490L (what's this?)

About the Author

Kenneth Mayer and David Canon teach politcal science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Kenneth Mayer and David Canon teach politcal science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Table of Contents

Preface — Introduction — Why Don’t We Like Congress? — The Collective Dilemma Through History — The Collective Dilemma in the Modern Context — The Collective Dilemma and Congressional Reform — An Agenda for Reform — Discussion Questions

Editorial Reviews

Traces the troubles of the US Congress to a misunderstanding of its institutional role within the government, and a perpetual conflict between actions that benefit individual members and actions that benefit society as a whole. Finds that the suggestions for reform do not address either problem. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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