On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000Thirty years after the "Watergate Babies" promised to end corruption in Washington, Julian Zelizer offers the first major history of the demise of the committee-era Congress and the rise of the contemporary legislative branch. Based on research in more than a hundred archival collections, this book tackles one of the most enduring political challenges in America: barring a wholesale revolution, how can we improve our representative democracy so as best to fulfill the promises of the Constitution? Whereas popular accounts suggest that major scandals or legislation can transform government institutions, Zelizer shows that reform is messy, slow, and involves many institutions coming together at the right time. The short period of reform in the 1970s--one that rivaled the Progressive Era--revolved around a coalition that had worked for decades, a slow reconfiguration of the relationship among political institutions, shifts in the national culture, and the ability of reformers to take advantage of scandals and elections. Zelizer presents a new look at the origins of the partisanship and scandal warfare that characterize today's politics. The book also offers a warning to the next generation of reformers by showing how a new political environment can radically transform the political impact of government reforms, as occurred when the conservative movement--during its rise to power in recent decades--took advantage of reforms that had ended the committee era. Julian Zelizer teaches political history at Boston University. His book, Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975 (Cambridge, 1999), was awarded the Organization of American Historian's 1998 D.B. Hardeman Prize. He is the co-editor of The Democratic Experiment (Princeton University Press, 2003) and the editor of The American Congress: The Building of Democracy (Houghton-Mifflin, 2005). |
Contents
Transforming Congress I | 1 |
The Southern Gettysburg | 14 |
BombThrowing Liberals | 33 |
Into the Political Thicket | 63 |
Exposing Congress | 76 |
A Window of Opportunity | 92 |
Money in Politics | 108 |
Reforming the Future | 125 |
Other editions - View all
On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948-2000 Julian E. Zelizer No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
agenda American Political April attack bill budget C-SPAN cable campaign finance civil rights cloture colleagues committee chairs Committee on Committees committee process Common Cause Congressional Quarterly congressional reform conservative corruption David December Democratic Caucus districts Dodd Editorial election electoral Ethics Committee February federal File filibuster funds George Reedy Hays Hubert Humphrey Humphrey institutional reform interest groups investigation issue January John Johnson June labor leadership legislative process liberal coalition Lyndon Johnson Mills mittee National networks Newt Gingrich Nixon November O'Neill October organizations partisan party leaders Political Science politicians Powell President presidential procedural proposal Rayburn redistricting reform coalition reporters Republicans Richard Bolling Robert Rules Committee scandal Select Committee senior southern Democrats Speaker stories subcommittee Supreme Court television tion Tip O'Neill U.S. Congress U.S. Senate University Press vote voters Washington Post Watergate Watergate Babies Wayne Hays Wilbur Mills York