Can Caucuses Help Make Congress Great Again?

October 7, 2016
President Obama meets with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in 2009. Source: Wikipedia. Well, maybe—or maybe not in their current form. Prof. Jennifer Victor of George Mason University writes: “The current… Read More

APSA White Papers on Congressional Capacity

September 6, 2016
Every chair was filled at the American Political Science Association panel discussing congressional capacity. The papers delivered were: Anthony Madonna and Ian Ostrander, “A Congress of Cannibals: The Evolution… Read More

Reminder: Saturday APSA Academic Panel On Congressional Capacity

August 31, 2016
Lee Drutman and Kevin Kosar, the co-directors of the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, will be on a panel titled “Assessing Congress’ Capacity to Solve Problems.” This will… Read More

A Case for Stronger Congressional Committees

August 3, 2016
With congressional partisanship at record highs and congressional approval ratings at record lows, the First Branch should consider reform. Two recent white papers (one analyzing the House, the… Read More

Is the House of Representatives Deinstitutionalizing?

July 5, 2016
The 114th Congress in the House chamber. Source: Wikipedia Jeffery A. Jenkins’ and Charles Stewart III’s recently presented an important paper, “The Deinstitutionalization (?) of the… Read More

Jonathan Rauch On Congress and Chaos

July 4, 2016
The Brookings Institution’s Jonathan Rauch has an article garnering much attention: “How American Politics Went Insane” (The Atlantic, July/August 2016). He writes: “Chaos syndrome is a chronic decline in the… Read More

Academic Panel On Congressional Capacity

May 30, 2016
Lee Drutman and Kevin Kosar, the co-directors of the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, will be on a panel titled “Assessing Congress’ Capacity to Solve Problems.” This will occur… Read More