San Antonio College Library

"Tracing the ways in which Congress has changed and adapted over two centuries to remain close and responsive to the people, the author addresses the question of whether some form of direct democracy will supplant representative, deliberative government in the United States. He sets the stage by covering key moments in our democratic history, from the constitutional convention and debate over the Bill of Rights, through debates over slavery petitions...

"The Senate syndrome goes beyond explaining such seeming technicalities as the difference between regular filibusters and post-cloture filibusters, the importance of chair rulings, the changing role of the parliamentarian, and the debate over whether appeals of points of order should be subject to cloture margins, to show why understanding them matters. At stake is resolution of the Senate syndrome, and the critical underlying struggle between majority...

A raucous history of American democracy at its wildest--and a bold rethinking of the relationship between the people and their politics. Democracy was broken. Or that was what many Americans believed in the decades after the Civil War. Shaken by economic and technological disruption, they sought safety in aggressive, tribal partisanship. The results were the loudest, closest, most violent elections in U.S. history, driven by vibrant campaigns that...