The Invention of the United States Senate

The Invention of the United States Senate PDF Author: Daniel Wirls
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801874390
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
The invention of the United States Senate was the most complicated and confounding achievement of the Constitutional Convention. Although much has been written on various aspects of Senate history, this is the first book to examine and link the three central components of the Senate's creation: the theoretical models and institutional precedents leading up to the Constitutional Convention; the work of the Constitutional Convention on both the composition and powers of the Senate; and the initial institutionalization of the Senate from ratification through the early years of Congress. The authors show how theoretical principles of a properly constructed Senate interacted with political interests and power politics in the multidimensional struggle to construct the Senate, before, during, and after the convention.

The Invention of the United States Senate

The Invention of the United States Senate PDF Author: Daniel Wirls
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801874390
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
The invention of the United States Senate was the most complicated and confounding achievement of the Constitutional Convention. Although much has been written on various aspects of Senate history, this is the first book to examine and link the three central components of the Senate's creation: the theoretical models and institutional precedents leading up to the Constitutional Convention; the work of the Constitutional Convention on both the composition and powers of the Senate; and the initial institutionalization of the Senate from ratification through the early years of Congress. The authors show how theoretical principles of a properly constructed Senate interacted with political interests and power politics in the multidimensional struggle to construct the Senate, before, during, and after the convention.

The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the history of the United States Senate

The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the history of the United States Senate PDF Author: Robert C. Byrd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 706

Get Book Here

Book Description


The American Senate

The American Senate PDF Author: Neil MacNeil
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199339570
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

Get Book Here

Book Description
Winner of the Society for History in the Federal Government's George Pendleton Prize for 2013 The United States Senate has fallen on hard times. Once known as the greatest deliberative body in the world, it now has a reputation as a partisan, dysfunctional chamber. What happened to the house that forged American history's great compromises? In this groundbreaking work, a distinguished journalist and an eminent historian provide an insider's history of the United States Senate. Richard A. Baker, historian emeritus of the Senate, and Neil MacNeil, former chief congressional correspondent for Time magazine, integrate nearly a century of combined experience on Capitol Hill with deep research and state-of-the-art scholarship. They explore the Senate's historical evolution with one eye on persistent structural pressures and the other on recent transformations. Here, for example, are the Senate's struggles with the presidency--from George Washington's first, disastrous visit to the chamber on August 22, 1789, through now-forgotten conflicts with Presidents Garfield and Cleveland, to current war powers disputes. The authors also explore the Senate's potent investigative power, and show how it began with an inquiry into John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. It took flight with committees on the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and World War II; and it gained a high profile with Joseph McCarthy's rampage against communism, Estes Kefauver's organized-crime hearings (the first to be broadcast), and its Watergate investigation. Within the book are surprises as well. For example, the office of majority leader first acquired real power in 1952--not with Lyndon Johnson, but with Republican Robert Taft. Johnson accelerated the trend, tampering with the sacred principle of seniority in order to control issues such as committee assignments. Rampant filibustering, the authors find, was the ironic result of the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation. No longer stigmatized as a white-supremacist tool, its use became routine, especially as the Senate became more partisan in the 1970s. Thoughtful and incisive, The American Senate: An Insider's History transforms our understanding of Congress's upper house.

Congressional Record

Congressional Record PDF Author: United States. Congress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 676

Get Book Here

Book Description


The American Commonwealth

The American Commonwealth PDF Author: James Bryce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 772

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Senate

The Senate PDF Author: Daniel Wirls
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813946913
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this lively analysis, Daniel Wirls examines the Senate in relation to our other institutions of government and the constitutional system as a whole, exposing the role of the "world’s greatest deliberative body" in undermining effective government and maintaining white supremacy in America. As Wirls argues, from the founding era onward, the Senate constructed for itself an exceptional role in the American system of government that has no firm basis in the Constitution. This self-proclaimed exceptional status is part and parcel of the Senate’s problematic role in the governmental process over the past two centuries, a role shaped primarily by the combination of equal representation among states and the filibuster, which set up the Senate’s clash with modern democracy and effective government and has contributed to the contemporary underrepresentation of minority members. As he explains, the Senate’s architecture, self-conception, and resulting behavior distort rather than complement democratic governance and explain the current gridlock in Washington, D.C. If constitutional changes to our institutions are necessary for better governance, then how should the Senate be altered to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? This book provides one answer.

Electing the Senate

Electing the Senate PDF Author: Wendy J. Schiller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691163170
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
How U.S. senators were chosen prior to the Seventeenth Amendment—and the consequences of Constitutional reform From 1789 to 1913, U.S. senators were not directly elected by the people—instead the Constitution mandated that they be chosen by state legislators. This radically changed in 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving the public a direct vote. Electing the Senate investigates the electoral connections among constituents, state legislators, political parties, and U.S. senators during the age of indirect elections. Wendy Schiller and Charles Stewart find that even though parties controlled the partisan affiliation of the winning candidate for Senate, they had much less control over the universe of candidates who competed for votes in Senate elections and the parties did not always succeed in resolving internal conflict among their rank and file. Party politics, money, and personal ambition dominated the election process, in a system originally designed to insulate the Senate from public pressure. Electing the Senate uses an original data set of all the roll call votes cast by state legislators for U.S. senators from 1871 to 1913 and all state legislators who served during this time. Newspaper and biographical accounts uncover vivid stories of the political maneuvering, corruption, and partisanship—played out by elite political actors, from elected officials, to party machine bosses, to wealthy business owners—that dominated the indirect Senate elections process. Electing the Senate raises important questions about the effectiveness of Constitutional reforms, such as the Seventeenth Amendment, that promised to produce a more responsive and accountable government.

Sizing Up the Senate

Sizing Up the Senate PDF Author: Frances E. Lee
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226470061
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book raises questions about one of the key institutions of American government, the United States Senate, and should be of interest to anyone concerned with issues of representation.

United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art

United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art PDF Author:
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : Politics in art
Languages : en
Pages : 528

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Last Great Senate

The Last Great Senate PDF Author: Ira Shapiro
Publisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 1586489364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Get Book Here

Book Description
Describes the statesmen who participated in the last glory days of the Senate, describing their leadership through the crisis years of the 1970s before the 1980 election signaled the start of a period of diminished effectiveness.