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Why Congress
A bold defense of our nation's legislature and its ability to work through the country's deepest divisions, and a stark warning of what our political future holds if we allow Congress to decay.
Like it or not, our country's future depends on Congress. The Founding Fathers made a representative, deliberative legislature the indispensable pillar of the American constitutional system, giving it more power and responsibility than any other branch of government. Yet today, contempt for Congress is nearly universal. To a large extent, even members of Congress themselves are unable to explain and defend the value of their institution.
Why Congress takes on this challenge squarely, explaining why our increasingly divided politics demand a legislature capable of pitting factions against each other and forcing them to work out accommodations. This book covers the past, present, and future of the institution to understand how it has become so dysfunctional, but also to suggest how it might be restored. The book vividly shows how a healthy Congress made it possible for the country to work through some of its most difficult challenges, including World War II and the struggle for civil rights. But transformations that began in the 1970s ultimately empowered congressional leaders to suppress dissent within their own parties and frame a maximally divisive agenda. In stark contrast to the earlier episodes, where legislators secured durable political resolutions, in facing contemporary challenges, such as immigration and COVID-19, Congress has exacerbated divisions rather than searching for compromises with broad appeal. But
Congress' power to organize itself suggests a way out. Wallach deftly explains that while Congress could accept its descent into decrepitude or cede its power to the president, a Madisonian revival of deliberation can yet restore our system of government's ability to work through deep divides.
Like it or not, our country's future depends on Congress. The Founding Fathers made a representative, deliberative legislature the indispensable pillar of the American constitutional system, giving it more power and responsibility than any other branch of government. Yet today, contempt for Congress is nearly universal. To a large extent, even members of Congress themselves are unable to explain and defend the value of their institution.
Why Congress takes on this challenge squarely, explaining why our increasingly divided politics demand a legislature capable of pitting factions against each other and forcing them to work out accommodations. This book covers the past, present, and future of the institution to understand how it has become so dysfunctional, but also to suggest how it might be restored. The book vividly shows how a healthy Congress made it possible for the country to work through some of its most difficult challenges, including World War II and the struggle for civil rights. But transformations that began in the 1970s ultimately empowered congressional leaders to suppress dissent within their own parties and frame a maximally divisive agenda. In stark contrast to the earlier episodes, where legislators secured durable political resolutions, in facing contemporary challenges, such as immigration and COVID-19, Congress has exacerbated divisions rather than searching for compromises with broad appeal. But
Congress' power to organize itself suggests a way out. Wallach deftly explains that while Congress could accept its descent into decrepitude or cede its power to the president, a Madisonian revival of deliberation can yet restore our system of government's ability to work through deep divides.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published May 30, 2023
22 people are currently reading
536 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 5, 2024
Great book that didn’t preach to me at the end which was refreshing. Reform can be good. If reform is expedited for one simple goal, the consequences will be realized by following generations.
Congress needs to be incentivized to work together and stop pandering to each party’s extremes. If not, it will soon be a rubber stamp to the executive, much like the Senate was to the Roman emperors.
Congress needs to be incentivized to work together and stop pandering to each party’s extremes. If not, it will soon be a rubber stamp to the executive, much like the Senate was to the Roman emperors.
January 1, 2024
Very good book highlighting the history of Congress, how and why it was initially set up as it was, and how and why it has deviated from its original purpose. Very good critique, with good suggestions and scenarios for improvement. Written a little bit dry and bland, but good book.
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July 20, 2025A dive into Congress, it's evolution, it's function, it's successes and failures; as well as where it can go from here. Quite informative. Well worth the read for those seeking to understand, Why Congress?
p2 "Factions--whether they be interest based or tribal, ideological or religious--divide our society, and their divisiveness can seem noxious and intolerable. Yet our constitutional order demands that we actively and faithfully represent them in our politics. Why? As Madison says in Federalist No. 10, to suppress faction we might abolish liberty, but to do so would be as wrongheaded as wishing for the "annihilation of air...because it imparts to fire its destructive agency." T be a free, self-governing people is to commit to a political system that copes with our differences rather than seeking to suppress them. This work will not often be pretty, nor will it generally yield policies that economists or other specialists would design. But by representing and accommodating our factions, pluralistic politics gives us the means to work through problems peacefully."
p16 "...in the American constitutional system, Congress is the place where our nation's diversity must be represented, where our many factions must be given the chance to bump against and accommodate each other. ..."
p40 "The very characteristics of our representative legislature that would be reformers find most exasperating--its messiness, balkiness, multiplicity--are those that render it capable, in ways the other branches are not, of maintaining the bonds that hold together our sprawling republic. Congress is many, not one plural, not singular. But so, of course, is our vast and varied country. An assemblage of representatives drawn from the whole of our diverse, factious country can forge a sense of national identity in a way the acts of a singular head of state or centralized bureaucracy cannot."
p2 "Factions--whether they be interest based or tribal, ideological or religious--divide our society, and their divisiveness can seem noxious and intolerable. Yet our constitutional order demands that we actively and faithfully represent them in our politics. Why? As Madison says in Federalist No. 10, to suppress faction we might abolish liberty, but to do so would be as wrongheaded as wishing for the "annihilation of air...because it imparts to fire its destructive agency." T be a free, self-governing people is to commit to a political system that copes with our differences rather than seeking to suppress them. This work will not often be pretty, nor will it generally yield policies that economists or other specialists would design. But by representing and accommodating our factions, pluralistic politics gives us the means to work through problems peacefully."
p16 "...in the American constitutional system, Congress is the place where our nation's diversity must be represented, where our many factions must be given the chance to bump against and accommodate each other. ..."
p40 "The very characteristics of our representative legislature that would be reformers find most exasperating--its messiness, balkiness, multiplicity--are those that render it capable, in ways the other branches are not, of maintaining the bonds that hold together our sprawling republic. Congress is many, not one plural, not singular. But so, of course, is our vast and varied country. An assemblage of representatives drawn from the whole of our diverse, factious country can forge a sense of national identity in a way the acts of a singular head of state or centralized bureaucracy cannot."
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December 28, 2023Wsj contr rec
December 30, 2023
An excellent and highly readable case for a Congress that can sort through the diversity of interests and demands of the United States.
February 19, 2024
This is a fantastic account of the role of Congress and how it can operate in a more useful mode. Wallach did the country a great service in writing it.
September 21, 2024
Important, smart, coherent, and necessary—but also boring.
January 11, 2025
Very good book highlighting the history of Congress, illustrating how and why it was initially set up as it was, as well as how and why it has deviated from its original purpose.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews