Kenneth R. Mayer - The Dysfunctional Congress?: The Individual Roots of an Institutional Dilemma

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The Dysfunctional Congress?

Dilemmas in American Politics

Series Editor L. Sandy Maisel, Colby College

Dilemmas in American Politics offers teachers and students a series of quality books on timely topics and key institutions in American government. Each text will examine a "real world" dilemma and will be structured to cover the historical, theoretical, policy relevant, and future dimensions of its subject.

Editorial Board

Jeffrey M. Berry
Tufts University

Paula D. McClain
University of Virginia

John F. Bibby
University of WisconsinMilwaukee

David T. Canon
University of WisconsinMadison

Rodolfo O. de la Garza
University of TexasAustin

Diana Evans
Trinity College

Linda L. Fowler
Dartmouth College

Paul S. Herrnson
University of MarylandCollege Park

Ruth S. Jones
Arizona State University

Karen O'Connor
American University

Samuel C. Patterson
Ohio State University

Ronald B. Rapoport
The College of William and Mary

Craig A. Rimmerman
Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Larry Sabato
University of Virginia

David Shribman
The Boston Globe

Walter J. Stone
University of ColoradoBoulder

Books in This Series

The Dysfunctional Congress ? The Individual Roots of an Institutional Dilemma, Kenneth R. Mayer and David T. Canon

The Accidental System: Health Care Policy in America, Michael D. Reagan

The Image-Is-Everything Presidency: Dilemmas of American Leadership, Richard W. Waterman, Robert Wright, and Gilbert St. Clair

"Cart We All Get Along?" Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics, Second Edition, Updated, Paula D. McClain and Joseph Stewart Jr.

Checks & Balancesf How a Parliamentary System Could Change American Politics, Paul Christopher Manuel and Anne Marie Cammisa

Remote and Controlled: Media Politics in a Cynical Age, Second Edition, Matthew Robert Kerbel

The Angry American: How Voter Rage Is Changing the Nation, Second Edition, Susan J. Tolchin

Two PartiesOr More ? The American Party System, John F. Bibby and L. Sandy Maisel

Making Americans, Remaking America: Immigration and Immigrant Policy, Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo O. de la Garza

From Rhetoric to Reform ? Welfare Policy in American Politics, Anne Marie Cammisa

The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service, Craig A. Rimmerman

No Neutral Ground? Abortion Politics in an Age of Absolutes, Karen O'Connor

Onward Christian Soldiers ? The Religious Right in American Politics, Clyde Wilcox

Payment Due: A Nation in Debt, A Generation in Trouble, Timothy J. Penny and Steven E. Schier

Bucking the Deficit: Economic Policymaking in the United States, G. Calvin Mackenzie and Saranna Thornton

The Dysfunctional Congress?

The Individual Roots of an Institutional Dilemma

Kenneth R. Mayer
University of WisconsinMadison
David T. Canon
University of WisconsinMadison

To our children: Adam and Sydney and Neal, Katherine, and Sophia

First published 1999 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1999 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mayer, Kenneth R., 1960
The dysfunctional Congress?: the
individual roots of an institutional dilemma / Kenneth R. Mayer and David T. Canon [sic].
p. cm. (Dilemmas in American politics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-2698-2 (hc). ISBN 0-8133-2699-0 (pbk.)
1. United States. Congress. 2. United States. CongressReform.
I. Canon, David T. II. Title. III. Series.
JK1041.M39 1999
328.73'0704dc21 98-55277
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29142-6 (hbk)

Contents

1. ii

Guide

1. Tables
2. Figures
3. Cartoons
4. Illustrations

In our undergraduate courses on Congress, which we have taught over the past decade, we often find ourselves in the position of defending Congress against the common charge that it is completely out of touch with the public. Political scientists, it seems, view the legislative process with far more sympathy than most people, even more than representatives and senators, who are quick to berate the institution. Our students often are puzzled by our insistence that Congress is not that bad, when everyone knows that it is corrupt and inept.

What we have attempted to do in this volume is explain why Congress acts as it does, and why so much of that activity undermines the institution, both in terms of how it functions and where it stands in the public eye. In doing so, we introduce students to an argument using "rational choice" theories to explain what happens when individuals come together to make collective decisions. We argue that Congress is fundamentally beset by a collective dilemma, because behavior that is individually rational to legislators results in a collective situation that none of them would otherwise prefer. Members pursuing their own election interests, representing their constituents, and locating themselves within the institution often act in ways that hurt the institution. Far from being a consequence of venal and ambitious legislators, this is a basic consequence of representative democracy. Even the Framers, in all their wisdom, grossly overestimated how devoted the first legislators would be to the collective good instead of local constituency interests.

The emphasis on the collective dilemma concept also provides a framework for thinking about how various reform proposals would affect Congress. In our view, reforms that would centralize control within the institution have the best chance of raising the visibility of collective issues; yet we argue that centralization and efficiency come at a price, and that these goals must be balanced against the competing, and equally valid, values of openness and participation. That is the fundamental question of democratic politics, and it cannot be resolved in any other way than through the political process itself.

In writing this book, we benefited from the support of the Sophomore Summer Honors Research Apprenticeship Program in the College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and of the Department of Political Science; through these sources we were able to secure the valuable research assistance of Jesse Gray and Chris Stangl. Our project editor, Kristin Milavec, did an extraordinary job, as did our copy editor, Sharon Dejohn. Everyone we dealt with at Westview was efficient and professional. We are also indebted to Leo Wiegman, our editor at Westview, and Sandy Maisel, for their vision and patience. We also thank our wives, Susan and Sarah, whose patience we tested more than Leo's and Sandy's.

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