America's Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere-James Madison through Newt Gingrich

Analyzing Congress

Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts, and Practices

Clinton and Congress: The Politics of Foreign Policy

Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial

Congress Confronts the Court: The Struggle for Legitimacy and Authority in Lawmaking

Congress on Display, Congress at Work

The Contentious Senate: Partisanship, Ideology, and the Myth of Cool Judgement

A Coup Attempt in Washington?: a European Mirror on the 1998-1999 Constitutional Crisis

The Electorate, the Campaign, and the Office: A Unified Approach to Senate and House Elections

Experiencing Politics: A Legislator's Stories of Government and Health Care

Foreign Policy and Congress: An International Relations Perspective

Friends and Foes: How Congress and the President Really Make Foreign Policy

Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Clinton

Legislative Labyrinth: Congress and Campaign Fianance Reform

Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century: A Biography

The U.S. House of Representatives: Reform or Rebuild?

America's Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere-James Madison through Newt Gingrich. David R. Mayhew. Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 0300080429, $30.00, cloth, 288 pages. 

David Mayhew's America's Congress reflects the author's view that political science has focused too much on the acts of individual members as rational actors driven by demands and pressures within the system. Alternatively, Mayhew argues that a useful way to understand a legislature is to fit the institution into a larger political and constitutional system where conspicuous individual acts are more important because of what they contribute to a larger collective political spirit. Members of Congress, in this view, cannot simply be devices for registering exogenously formed preferences and interest group demands, but rather they are part of a vibrant process of shaping the "collective consciousness" of public affairs (48-9).

Mayhew's analysis draws upon an original data set of 38 academic works of American "public affairs" history books. The author has identified 2304 actions by members of Congress that warrant mention in these books. His analysis attempts to discern how members and their actions shape the "public sphere" and what these specific actions reveal about the institution of Congress and its place in history. 

Based on his analysis, Mayhew argues that by examining the acts of individual members, one sees how the opportunity structure has shifted prestige from the House to the Senate and how Congress has declined as a source of appointments to executive branch posts. Among Mayhew's findings are the unsurprising roles of congresspersons, that being: extraconstitutional tasks, legislating, taking stands, foreign policy, and opposition to presidential administrations. Mayhew goes beyond identifying these roles to tracing them through history. What is revealing is Mayhew's evidence that the House, Senate and president have, over time, become more democratic, more distinct and more equal (130). Not surprisingly, more senior members contribute more significant "actions" to the collective consciousness, but democratizing forces also mean that individual members can (and do) make a greater contribution to national issues and direction than often assumed. Mayhew worries that term limits may undermine the contributions of individuals (and thus the institution) to our sphere of public affairs 

Mayhew also tracks over time the ideological impulses represented by different congressional actions. What seems clear is that scholars may have underestimated the acts that enhance the power of the individuals and the institution in contrast with those that denigrate the ability to govern.

This unusual data source offers students and scholars of Congress solid, insightful and readable history of the institution through the contributions of its individual members.

In Analyzing Congress, Charles Stewart III has provided a comprehensive undergraduate textbook that builds entirely on rational choice theory to understand the U.S. national legislature. While legislative scholars have embraced formal theory as a mainstay of graduate political science education, most undergraduates are given only scant exposure to these concepts. Stewart's explicit purpose is to remedy that disjuncture between undergraduate teaching and central concepts of the field.

In an introduction that covers essential theoretical concepts, Stewart acquaints students to the basics of spatial voting theory and builds a vocabulary for later chapters. The introduction provides lots of diagrams and examples (both real and hypothetical) which help students through the theoretical foundations. Moreover, the author provides a recap at the end of the chapter of key concepts and a set of problems for students to test their understanding of the concepts.

Subsequent chapters cover the constitutional origins and historical development of Congress, emphasizing the development of rules that transform the institution and its decision making dynamics. Recasting the constitutional convention debates over state representation, Stewart provides students with a fresh way to look at the choices made by the founders. Similarly, the analysis traces how institutional rules evolved to reflect the balance of power between the committees and leadership in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Three chapters deal with the strategic choices of voters, candidates, and the election context. Stewart again provides key concepts and problems with each chapter to reinforce and test students' understanding of the concepts. 

Because of the focus on formal theory, the text neglects topics that are often a mainstay in a congressional politics course. For example, representation gets good coverage as a question of state power and institutional design, but there is little or no discussion of descriptive representation, matters of race, and gender. As an introduction to concepts of formal theory which are so influential to legislative studies, this book is accessible and highly readable. Thus Stewart's text is a welcome addition to a teacher's shelf and will complement other books. 

Munger argues that for analysts to understand fully a policy, they must take into account the context from which it emerged. Seemingly contradictory policies are produced as a result of three distinct types of conflict: market versus experts (associated with efficiency policies); market versus politics (associated with equity policies); and politics versus experts (associated with institutional reform policies). The most intractable conflict, however, is "deciding how to decide." In other words, how do we determine if a problem is to be addressed collectively or privately?

Beyond providing a contextual framework for viewing various types of policies and their origins, Munger offers a variety of tools to analyze policy and to ensure that the "wisest" path is chosen, including discussions of the welfare economics paradigm, cost-benefit analysis, discounting for time, and discounting to address uncertainty and risk. These tools and techniques are applied to three case studies in an effort to link theory to application. The best analysts, according to Munger, are somewhere in between the eternal optimist and Voltaire's Candide. He labels them skeptical optimists: someone who "hopes for the best, but assumes the worst unless her skepticism is disproved" (xiv). This book offers a synthesis of political and economic theory and practical applications that is aimed at the advanced undergraduate student in political science or public administration, as well as master's level programs in policy and administration.

Terry Deibel proves here that a book does not need to be long in order to be very useful. In a concise 68 pages he offers a coherent narrative and analysis that traces the pattern of the Clinton administration's relationships with the Congress. His analytical framework arrays members of Congress in two groups within each party. Democrats are divided between an idealist wing that subscribes to Wilsonian principles and believes that U.S. power and policy should be used to advance American ideals such as democracy and freedom, and a pragmatist wing that, while embracing these objectives, accepts that the realities of international relations will often set limits on our ability to aggressively pursue them through our foreign policy. Republicans are divided between an internationalist wing that embraces a Rooseveltian conception of America's role in world affairs, and a unilateralist wing that believes that America should not become entangled in foreign alliances in the conduct of its foreign policy. The Democratic Pragmatists and the Republican Internationalists together comprise a potential centrist coalition; however, each party's centrist group is a constrained minority within its own party's ranks. Policy, therefore, tends to be dominated by the two more extreme groups, Democratic idealists and Republican unilateralists. During the Clinton administration, conditions of divided government exacerbated these underlying tensions.

Deibel's narrative puts flesh on these analytical bones by tracing tensions among the congressional factions across a variety of foreign policy issues, showing the foreign policy universe through the eyes of each faction as he goes along. In the process, foreign policy controversies that appear rather convoluted to the casual observer begin to make more sense. We see, for example, why the Chemical Weapons Treaty was ratified while the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was not as we better understand the odd political coalitions that developed around each of the treaties.

Deibel concludes by considering the prospects for the reemergence of bipartisanship in foreign policy, which are not good. While the divisions within the Congress over foreign policy issues are not strictly partisan, the environment within which they emerge is heavily so. The institutional levers of power are in the hands of the more liberal Democrats and more conservative Republicans. How might a new Gore or Bush administration affect the balance of forces? Curiously, Deibel places Bush in the camp of Republican internationalists based largely upon his embrace of free trade and American global leadership. Yet in terms of strategy, Bush has emerged in the early months of his administration as a president quite willing to go it alone in international affairs. Is he, then, a unilateralist or simply a new president positioning himself to engage the world?

In Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial, Donald R. Wolfensberger explores the historical paradox faced by our legislators, whether to be responsive or deliberative. Wolfensberger argues that it is becoming more and more difficult in the modern information age and technological era to protect the deliberative role of the Congress. The most interesting and threatening aspect of this age is what he terms the "sunshine paradox." He explains: 
. . . the more Congress opened its doors and windows to the people (with committee hearings, floor debates, and votes in both arenas carried directly to the people via C-SPAN television and a congressional Internet site), the lower it dropped in public confidence and approval (6).

Wolfensberger argues that even in light of the recent downward trend in public approval of Congress, we are not necessarily on an inevitable course towards national direct democracy. A reformation of this magnitude would not only require a constitutional amendment, but would demand even more public participation - a trend that is also on steady decline in the modern era. Finally, given the dependable pressures of special interests, he doubts the popularity of a government completely responsive to popular demand. 

Wolfensberger's historical analysis is thorough, and his findings are insightful and timely. He concludes that public distrust of the system is not novel, that it has existed since the Revolution. What is novel, however, is the reason for public distrust in the modern era. The analysis suggests that public distrust in the Congress stems from the polarization of American parties. While the public expects parties to illustrate issue differentiation, it also expects parties to effectively govern. Rather than governance, we have the perpetual campaign. Rather than comity and civility, we have autonomy and strife. Rather than good policy development, we seem to be witnessing the rise of partisan politics. While part of this is a response to the decentralization and fragmentation of earlier congresses, part of it, must be viewed as an overly zealous attempt to seem responsive in an age that values instant communication.

According to the authors, there are two incorrect assumptions about the Court and the Congress. On the one hand, scholars have traditionally viewed the Court as an isolated entity, devoid of politics, and capable of reaching judicial decisions in a vacuum. On the other hand, the Congress has been seen as a distinctly political institution with little regard for nuanced lawmaking. Throughout this book, the authors argue that no one branch acts alone. Rather, the relationship between the Congress and the Court is dynamic, far-reaching, and ongoing.

To demonstrate their argument, the authors illustrate a number of ways that the Court and Congress continually interact, through the use of judicial review, the confirmation process, and congressional oversight. In tracing this relationship, Campbell and Stack describe a Court that is quite political and a Congress that is more interested in the decisions and makeup of the Court. While some may argue that scholars have already recognized the political role of the courts, this book does propose a more realistic understanding of the Supreme Court, and it also provides insight into the issues that are currently confronting the Court and the Congress.

Congress on Display, Congress at Work, edited by William Bianco, is a collection of research articles that apply key ideas from Richard Fenno's numerous studies on Congress to current issues pertaining to the legislative branch. The first article, written by Bianco, sets the theme found throughout the text by noting two cornerstones of Fenno's conventional wisdom: 1) that members of Congress are motivated by three goals, reelection, influence with the House, and good public policy; 2) that members of Congress picture themselves as not separated from the constituency, but as part of the constituency, which Fenno describes as "Home Style." 

From these insights, research in this text primarily involves the changes, perceived or real, in Congress that have occurred since the Republican takeover of the House in 1995. Some of the changes discussed include power struggles between committee chairs and the majority leadership, the governance of the Republican majority, more party switching, and a greater demand for term limits. The most interesting articles deal with the dramatic political career of Newt Gingrich. As Speaker, Gingrich begins with near complete control of the political agenda in the House but in a few years is nearly removed. Gingrich's transition is an important lesson that autocratic rule does not last long in democratic institutions. 

Many contributors also explain in their research the benefits of Fenno's methodology known as "soaking and poking." This stresses the need to get up close and personal to politicians in order to understand motivations and behaviors. The reader will find a deep sense of appreciation for Fenno's groundbreaking studies throughout these articles. As contributor Richard Forgette writes of Fenno, "the success of Richard Fenno's works on Congress is partly due to his ability to always tell a good story while presenting a clear, provocative conceptual framework." This same spirit is found in this text. Anyone who enjoys Fenno's writing and methodological techniques should read this book. 

According to Publius, the Senate was designed to serve as a check upon the people's body, the House of Representatives. It is supposed to be more removed from the ebbs and flows of public opinion to ensure that majority will does not hinder the making of good public policy.

For much of the institution's existence, it seemed to serve well this purpose. Even after the Seventeenth Amendment, which made the upper chamber subject to popular election, it operated according to certain unwritten norms that governed the behavior of senators, making the elite body unique among legislative institutions. Donald Matthews' 1960 study of the Senate paints the picture of a body governed by "folkways" that made up for the Senate's lack of a formal rule structure. Members were much more non-partisan than their House counterparts. Their ideologies were checked by their sense of duty to country. They respected the institution they were privileged enough to belong to, and they acted so as to ensure its elusive mystique. Younger senators took a back seat to and revered their more tenured superiors, and in general the Senate was a place where grace and decorum separated it from the more pedestrian House of Representatives.

Since Matthews' study, many scholars have noted that the Senate is no longer the "old boys club" it once was. This edited work by Campbell and Rae brings together some of the foremost scholars on the Senate to uncover exactly what has changed in the upper chamber, and what has accounted for this change.

The contributors find an image of the contemporary senate that is quite different from the Federalists' vision. Members are younger and more diverse; they are not always seasoned politicians with temperance and constancy. Seniority does not prevail the way it did during Matthews' study, and partisan differences have all but replaced the trustee-guardian role the body was intended to serve. Members are much more fragmented than they were before, and though senators have always exercised a high degree of independence, it is their rapacious individualism that makes the body difficult for party leaders to govern. As a result, the way that the Senate operates is not consistent with the myths about this elite body.

Perhaps the most intriguing contribution of this book lies in its brief section on the leadership. Barbara Sinclair and Burdett Loomis illustrate that leadership, compromise, and hence policymaking are very difficult in this new "contentious senate," and yet the chamber is full of subtle ironies. Party control in the Senate has become increasingly marginal despite the fact that the cloture rule is still in effect. Leaders therefore have to do more than try to govern their own party and cater to the needs of their loyalists. Contemporary majority leaders must work together with minority leaders in order to avoid a stalemate, something that might not have been as necessary when there was clear party dominance. While individual members have become more partisan, the leadership on both sides must exercise bipartisan techniques to preserve the function of the institution and to maintain its role in the balance of politics.

Appropriately, Donald Matthews provides the Afterword to this work. He agrees that the Senate of today is very different from the chamber he studied. He notes, however, that all political institutions have changed in the past forty years and we would be remiss in concluding that the Senate changes are either unique or permanent. Each generation determines the direction of its governing bodies, so we can expect to see the Senate evolve with the citizenry.

Merkl's book is a study of European press accounts of the period during the Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent impeachment and trial of President Clinton in 1999. The accounts are pulled from a variety of sources including The Economist, Le Monde, and miscellaneous other German and Italian newspapers. In sum the attitude presented by the articles cited and by the author is one of incredulity and even outrage at those events that captivated Americans and sparked both national and international debate. The book follows a mostly chronological order of events with an overview at the beginning and the end of the book. The narrative style of the book is often reminiscent of movies, like Rashomon, that tell the same story from the points of view from different characters. The repetition of events and ideas is often tedious, but the perspectives on the events are always fascinating. 

The book could be criticized for its seeming one-sidedness; the attitude of the Europeans seems always to favor the Clinton explanation of the reasons for impeachment. The author for the most part is just interpreting what the European press was printing about the situation. The book tries to be even handed when choosing news articles to reproduce and luckily does not turn into a Clinton apologist account. 

This book is written in a narrative style that is easy to follow and comprehend. It provides an excellent and refreshing perspective on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that many Americans may not have expected. For someone studying how the European press and people view American attitudes and events, this book could be an interesting read.

Gronke is addressing the literature that holds that the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are distinct archetypes and should be studied and understood separately. Gronke is attempting to find similarities in order to begin the process of finding a unified theory for understanding the U. S. Congress. He offers preliminary support for the idea that a unified theory could emerge for the U.S. Congress.

Paul Gronke address the complex issue of the behavior of the American electorate at various levels of competition for offices. He is investigating the apparent differences in the Senate and the House campaigns in a variety of measures. Using a predominantly quantitative approach, Gronke finds evidence that indicates that the various campaigns for different offices are more alike than they are different. While the approach appears quantitative, Gronke terms his approach as one that is comparative. The comparisons are between quantitative figures and observations between House and Senate elections.

Gronke examines the context of the various elections, the variety of candidates that could run for office, and the voters themselves and the act of voting. Using these three broad areas, Gronke tests the utility of applying a unified approach to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Gronke's work asserts that such an approach would be useful in understanding the two houses of Congress. He acknowledges that the two houses have differences, but these differences need to be understood as a difference of variables and not the cause to create different models.

Gronke's work is insightful. The author presents a wide array of evidence and statistical tests for his model. This exploratory piece of work gives support to the creation of a unified theory of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Scholars who are interested in any aspect of the American Congress, voting behavior, or elections would find this book interesting. 

Some of the more interesting themes and concepts explored in Experiencing Politics include discourse theory, the dual motivations of self-interest and public interest of political participants, and the role of the legislator as a trustee and/or delegate. Many of these themes are then applied to integrative political models, such as John Kingdon's agenda-setting model. At every turn, McDonough is able to tell an intelligent tale to provide life to these concepts. For instance, he relays the importance of political metaphors in vividly detailing his experience with a local street gang, the X-Men.

McDonough concludes that politics does not necessarily need to be a nasty word. Once we understand the conversation and the game of who gets what, when, where, how, and why, metaphors that he uses to describe the political process, we can learn to understand and respect its power. 

Certainly, McDonough's approach is atypical of other memoirs in that he uses engaging anecdotes in conjunction with political science insights to provide an involved account of the political process. Thus, Experiencing Politics is an enjoyable book that can be beneficial to any student of American politics. For the uninitiated, McDonough provides some useful tools to help the student understand and become interested in government. For the more experienced student, his insights help connect what is taught in the classroom to politics in action.

Henehan argues that Congressional behavior--specifically Senatorial behavior--is shaped by critical issues that arise in the international arena. Congress increases its activity and its attempts to affect foreign policy when critical issues arise, but once these critical issues have been debated and consensus has been achieved, Congress resumes a passive role. Congressional aggressiveness will therefore be irregular because it depends upon the emergence of an issue in the international arena, as well as the nature of that emerging foreign policy issue. While the previous literature describes foreign policy debates as mere contests between branches of American government, Henehan provides an international--and less insular-- perspective to the study of American foreign policy.

The study examines roll call votes in the Senate over an 88-year time span. Henehan's most interesting innovation is the use of these roll call votes en bloc as a unit of analysis--measuring congressional activity as a whole, rather than, for example, presidential support. The study is therefore not an examination of individual decisions, but rather the institution as a whole. Henehan provides a more nuanced understanding of foreign policy debates--not as zero-sum games between Congress and the president, but as debates within the branches of government and within the wider society.

Henehan's work is commendable because of the clarity of her style and the organization of her argument. The literature review is thorough and informative without being overly exhaustive: an admirably lucid explanation of the various arguments that make up the scholarship on Congress and foreign policy. This study is useful for both scholars of Congress and students of international relations, although it is probably more useful for the former. Foreign Policy and Congress represents an important attempt to resolve some of the contradictions apparent in the literature surrounding Congressional behavior on foreign policy while providing a theoretical basis for further study.

Hersman draws upon her firsthand experience as special assistant to the undersecretary of defense for policy from 1993 to 1997 and experience as a professional staffer for the House Armed Services Committee to address the foreign policy formulation and decision-making process. She uses three case studies from the 1990s: the U.S. transfer of warships to Turkey; the Brown Amendment which argued for the relaxing of sanctions against Pakistan due to nuclear proliferation; and the debate over the Chemical Weapons Conventions; as well as various personal observations and anecdotes to illustrate the complexity of foreign policy development. These personal observations are fleshed out by numerous direct interviews with executive officials, legislative staffers and academics.

This work focuses on the institutional constraints imposed on the policymaking process and specifically on the executive/legislative roles in foreign policymaking. Hersman acknowledges the complexity of the process and notes the conflict is institutionally imperative. Sharing of power and checks and balances contribute to a system that leads to frustration and inefficiency. This frustration is further compounded by the media and its attention to big ticket, headline grabbing, policy development. However, most foreign policy is conducted away from the media's attention. This "day to day interaction" over mundane issues is where foreign policy is really developed. She also notes the importance of issue leaders and cross-institutional linkages. 

Hersman's thesis is threefold: that the study of mundane foreign policy development is more important than headline foreign policy, and most of this work is done by legislative/executive professionals; the work done in the institutional "trenches" often dictates the success of foreign policy; the large headline foreign policy development is contingent on institutions developed and executed by staffing professionals. In essence, Hersman suggests that it is the executive/legislative staffers and institutions that actually influence foreign policymaking process the most. This work studies foreign policy from that perspective.

Hersman brings a practitioner's perspective to the foreign policy-making process. It is useful in that it shows the weaknesses of the process and suggests alternate solutions to the inefficiency and frustration that is American foreign policy. 

In this historical account of the justices of the Supreme Court, Henry Abraham examines the members of the Court from many different angles. In painstaking detail, he attempts to discern why particular individuals were nominated, the role of the Senate in the confirmation process, the degree to which justices met presidential hopes or expectations, and how well individual members of the Court fulfilled their judicial responsibilities. To accomplish this task, Abraham provides a comprehensive history of every member that has served on the Court from the nominees of Washington to those of Clinton.

There are many interesting observations made throughout this book. First, Abraham identifies four criteria that presidents use in selecting nominees to the Court, including objective merit, personal friendship, balancing representation on the Court, and real political and ideological compatibility. Most importantly, however, Abraham suggests that presidents know their expectations for sending individuals to the bench. Second, the author observes how the confirmation process has become more political over time. As justices began to assert more power in their roles, Senators became more willing to closely scrutinize nominees. Third, Abraham finds that most presidents were somewhat disappointed with their nominees to the bench. For example, President Eisenhower claimed that his biggest mistakes were his Supreme Court nominees. Fourth, throughout the book, Abraham demonstrates that the Court is not an isolated institution that is devoid of politics. Finally, the author creates an eleven-pronged model for determining the relative merit of Supreme Court justices. Using this model, he attempts to develop some understanding of how each of the 108 members of the Court fit into the development of American law and society.

Because of its comprehensive historical view of all the Supreme Court justices, this book would be useful to anyone interested in the history of the Court.

Diana Dwyer and Victoria Farrar-Myers seek to understand the various processes that relate to campaign finance reform measures in the Unites States Congress, as well as the various sources and impacts of influences that affect these pieces of legislation. These authors offer a unique case study of the 105 Congress and the campaign reform measures that were introduced.

The authors utilize access they gained as congressional fellows during the second session of the 105th Congress. This access allowed the scholars a unique insight into the campaign finance reform measures that were debated during this session of Congress. Their positions within the Congress also allowed the authors to present a unique perspective that is a blend of academic and applied research. This makes Legislative Labyrinth an interesting read to academics and non academics alike.

The dominant focus of the book is the Shays-Meehan Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The authors examine the debate of this bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, an examination of those that were proponents and opponents of the campaign finance bill, the role of the parties and other outside influences on the campaign finance reform measure, and other interest groups. The authors then examine attempts to pass campaign finance reform in the 106^th Congress. The authors also outline institutional rules and procedures that impact the understanding of campaign reform legislation in the Senate.

The authors gain understanding that the policymaking process is growing more diverse. Law makers are more free from the control of their party and its leaders to pursue institutional goals. This results in different strategies that are pursued by lobbing groups to establish networks of influence rather than the access these groups once pursued.

The authors offer no prediction on the future of campaign finance reform in the United States. The authors do conclude that the legislative labyrinth hinders the chances that campaign finance reform will occur in the United States. While the labyrinth may be navigated, it probably will require a strong individual or more likely a public outcry that penetrates all levels of the labyrinth. 

Former House Speaker Tip O'Neill emerges in this substantial biography as a larger than life figure whose career captured the essence of American politics from the rise of the liberal state during the New Deal to the conservative attack on it after 1980. O'Neill is portrayed as a sagacious politician whose political wiles led to the top of the heap in both the Massachusetts and U.S. houses of representatives. His rise from the House Rules Committee to the speakership took just seven years, meteoric relative to twentieth century precedent. Ironically, just as he attained the pinnacle of his ambition the country turned against the policies for which he had stood. The conservative wave rose slowly under the moderate Democrat Jimmy Carter, and then reached tidal proportions under the conservative Republican Ronald Reagan. Tip O'Neill's lasting legacy, in Farrell's view, is the preservation of the basic elements of the welfare state in the face of the Reagan onslaught.

One might question this thesis. David Stockman called the failure of the Reagan revolution the triumph of politics and not the triumph of Tip O'Neill. In the end, Republicans did not want to do away with the welfare state either. Throughout this book, the narrative consistently places O'Neill at the center of major developments in politics, public policy, and institutional reform. No doubt he was there and played a hand in shaping events in all three areas. Yet the focus on O'Neill casts into the shadow others who played key roles, including party leaders such as Carl Albert and Jim Wright and committee leaders such as Dick Bolling and Dan Rostenkowski. The subject of a major biography will always be central to the book, but this does not mean that the person is as central to history.

Still, this book tells the story of an interesting man in an interesting way. All of the well-known stories are told, and some new ones as well. O'Neill supporters will discover here a Tip O'Neill with whom they are familiar, and political junkies will find plenty of vignettes to entertain and edify. As biographies of speakers go, this one is worth reading.

In this edited volume, various scholars consider shortcomings of the modern House of Representatives. The overall focus is on reform to make the House both more responsive and more representative, but there are critics of reform as well as champions included in this collection. 

Historically, the ideal was that the House would be the people's chamber, but initial suffrage was sufficiently limited so that only six to twenty percent of the population was eligible to vote (16). While suffrage limitations have largely been overcome, one chapter traces the expansion of suffrage and thus of the House's constituency. The editors question whether "the people" are truly represented. The lack of female and minority representation is covered historically and in terms of efforts to correct inadequacies such as majority-minority districting. In addition, the problems of low voter turnout for House elections and the connection between the incumbency advantage and money are analyzed. 

Reforms covered that would make the House more responsive include term limits, enlarging the number of representatives, and campaign finance reform. Making the House more representative is dealt with in several chapters on reforming the single-member district electoral system. Several different potential electoral systems are discussed including the single-transferrable vote and cumulative voting systems. But as the critics of reform contained in this volume warn, reform implies change for the better, and poorly thought out reforms could just be change that does not entail improvement and may even have unintended consequences. This volume gives a balanced discussion of the current state of representation in the U.S. House and pros and cons of possible reforms. Debates over representation and the need for reform should be sparked by the discussions contained within the covers of this book.