Table of Contents

Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Making a Constitution Chapter 2: The Bill of Rights: Madison Gets Religion Chapter 3: The Right to Petition: The Long Drive Chapter 4: Congress and the Progressive Era Chapter 5: The Initiative and Referendum Movement Chapter 6: National Referendum Proposals and the Isolationist Impulse Chapter 7: The Dawning of the Sunshine Seventies Chapter 8: A Window on Congress: Televising Floor Debates Chapter 9: The Revival of Direct Democracy Proposals Chapter 10: The Road to the Republican Revolution Chapter 11: The Road to Governance: Revolution, Reform, and Reality Chapter 12: Coming Full Circle: The Complete Revolution? Chapter 13: Term Limits and the Scarlet Letter Chapter 14: The Electronic Congress Chapter 15: The Curtain Falls Twice on the House Chapter 16: The Future of Deliberative Democracy Appendix A: Voter Turnout in States with and without Statutory Initiatives and/or Referendums, 1992 and 1996 General Elections Appendix B: House Legislative Data for 103d-105th Congresses Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

This book contains the best and finest understanding of Congressional behavior I know and makes anew-and in the context of current political issues and means of communication-our founders' case for deliberative, representative democracy. -- Anthony C. Beilenson, former U.S. Representative from California Anyone who reads this study will recognize immediately that the scholarship that went into it is superior... With the twenty- first century just around the corner, it is especially timely given its assessment of the tension between our republican form of government and 'virtual democracy.'. -- Walter Oleszek, American University

About the Author

Donald R. Wolfensberger served as a staff member in Congress from 1969 to 1997, working for such House members as John B. Anderson, Trent Lott, and Lynn Martin. He is currently the director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Reviews

An interesting volume on Congress and its democratic relationships with the people. Choice The author, a long-time Republican staff member in the U.S. Congress who played a key role in the events leading up to and following the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, eschews the traditional memoir in favor of a more ambitious approach. Certainly, Wolfensberger relies on stories from his tenure in the House, but he also plays the role of historian and political scientist. -- Neil Berch Controversia