Customer Reviews

How Congress Evolves: Social Bases of Institutional Change

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This book provides an elegant description of one of the most important transformations of American politics: the end of the Dixiecrats and the transformation of the Solid South from the Democrats to the Republicans. He importantly connects this with the rise of the power of the caucus and leadership. It also has implications for the crisis of partisanship in Congress.

The book basically concerns several interwoven phenomena, the House Democratic Caucus exerting political control on its conservative southern members and the rise of the Republican South. Polsby demonstrates how demographic and sociological phenomena weakened the grip of the South on Democratic Party machinery, pulling the Democratic Party to the left. This increased the pressure on Dixiecrats to switch parties, once it became acceptable to be a Southern Democrat.

Polsby also discusses the rise of contemporary partisanship. As the Caucus got the power to discipline its chairman, it demanded an end to bipartisanship. This weakened Republican moderates who called for cooperation and working with the Democrats. This led to the rise in power of Newt Gingrich (an Amazon reviewer!) who advocated a different strategy that eventually led to the 1994 election.

Excellent book, and excellent insights. In several ways, this book will help me do my job better as a staffer in the House of Representatives.

Interesting to know how Congress has evolved. The book is more than just about Congress though, for Congress is a body somewhat representative of the people. So Polsby offers some interesting explanations for why the South became a Republican stronghold. Also, the various changes in leadership control is interesting and important for understanding changing dynamics in America's political system. Lots of helpful footnotes, bordering on obsenely excessive. The case studies into various personalities is really interesting: Wilbur Mills was a nut!

From the Publisher:
"How Congress Evolves" is Nelson Polsby's magnum opus. Polsby is an institution among congressional scholars and this book will be a classic work on Congress along with the writings of Woodrow Wilson and Richard Fenno. Polsby's wonderful observations from his interviews and deft use of data about stability and change in Congress combined with his humor make the book hard to put down once you start reading it. --James A. Thurber, Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, American University

From the Publisher: "Nelson Polsby always offers a fresh and insightful perspective on Congress. Few observers pull together the historical perspective, original analysis, and trenchant observations as well as Nelson Polsby does." Congressman Lamar Smith (R. Texas)

"How Congress Evolves" is elegantly written, cogently argued, and politically astute. Nelson Polsby gives his readers the benefit of four decades and more of immersion in and observation of Congress, along with his penetrating insights into politics, people, and institutions, and a writing style that is at once accessible and sophisticated. Novices and experts, students and practitioners, scholars and journalists, all will learn immensely about how the House of Representatives works and how it changes."--Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute

"Combining historical breadth and intimate detail, Nelson Polsby explains how and why the U.S. Congress came to change both its ideological makeup and its internal decision-making processes at midcentury. An important book by a gifted storyteller, "How Congress Evolves" is a treatise in its sweep and a memoir in its depth. No other political scientist could have delivered this combination of strengths." Richard Fenno, author of "Home Style: House Members in their Districts".

From the Publisher: "Nelson Polsby has been studying, reading about and hanging around the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 40 years. In "How Congress Evolves", he provides the definitive--and often witty-account of how the House has changed over time, and why." Michael Barone, coauthor, "The Almanac of American Politics"

From the Publisher: "Nelson Polsby has given several generations of political scientists and historians a better understanding of that complex body the Congress of the United States. His new book shows us how the House of Representatives has responded to the enormous changes in American life over the past half century. Like its author, it is lively, engaging, and wise."
--Morton Keller, History Department, Brandeis University