Congress and Its Members - Softcover

Davidson, Roger H.; Oleszek, Walter J.; Lee, Frances E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872899675 ISBN 13: 9780872899674

Publisher: CQ Press, 2009

Synopsis

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Davidson, Oleszek, and Lee’s focus on Congress as both a legislative institution and as a group of reelection-minded politicians has proven to be an extraordinarily effective and accessible way for thousands of students to understand the institution and the law-making process. A proven classic, the twelfth edition of Congress and Its Members features careful revising, new scholarship, and crucial updating.

From edition to edition, the updates you can always rely on feature coverage of:

• the 2008 elections
• the agenda of the new Congress 
• White House–Capitol Hill relationships 
• party and committee leadership changes 
• judicial appointments
• campaign finance 
• reapportionment 
• the future of partisan polarization 
• rules changes and procedural shifts

And revisions that explore the historic and significant changes since the last edition include:

• How will Congress deal with the economic crisis and financial meltdown, along with two foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? 
• How will Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid―with consolidated majorities in the House and Senate―work with the Obama administration?
• How will Congress confront the "midnight regulations" of the Bush administration?
• What is the role of conference committees for reconciling bicameral disagreements? 
• Do the 2008 congressional elections signify a partisan realignment, or simply a continuing trend? 
• Do new developments in campaign funding, strategies, and techniques tell us something new, or do they mainly repeat past trends? 
• Has Bush’s "imperial presidency" become a precedent for future inter-branch working arrangements? How effectively can Congress strive to regain its powers and prerogatives?

About this title

About the Author

Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland, and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. During the 2001–2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990’s, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995), and Understanding the Presidency, Seventh Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2012). Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995).

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993 he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A longtime adjunct faculty member at American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer to various academic, governmental, and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, 10th ed. (2016), and Congress under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority, with C. Lawrence Evans (1997).

Frances E. Lee is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. She has been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an APSA Congressional Fellow. Most recently, she is the author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign (2016). She is also author of Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate (2009), which received the Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize for the best book on legislative politics in 2010 and the D. B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on the U.S. Congress published in 2009. She is co-author, with Bruce I. Oppenheimer, of Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999). Her articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.

Review

This book is the foundation text for courses on the U.S. Congress. It is clear, comprehensive, and easy to read. Students appreciate the up-to-date examples and the clearly-presented information. The authors use of the dual Congress framework helps to illuminate the underlying tension between the individual and collective responsibilities of legislators. This is one of the fundamental books for understanding how Congress operates. --Pam Camerra-Rowe, Kenyon College

Written in clear, direct prose, Congress and Its Members provides students with a central theme, the two Congresses, that enables them to organize and understand the myriad details that characterize the structure and operation of a very complex institution. I particularly value the fact that by following that theme through the many dimensions of Congress, students learn to think analytically as they learn about Congress itself. --Dennis J. Goldford, Drake University

Written in clear, direct prose, Congress and Its Members provides students with a central theme, the two Congresses, that enables them to organize and understand the myriad details that characterize the structure and operation of a very complex institution. I particularly value the fact that by following that theme through the many dimensions of Congress, students learn to think analytically as they learn about Congress itself. --Dennis J. Goldford, Drake University

Edition details

• Publisher: CQ Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0872899675
• ISBN 13: 9780872899674
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 501