The House leadership’s top-down management style isn’t working. Is it time to try more democracy?
Lee Drutman
Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the New America Political Reform program and the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America.
Posted inBooks, Government, Magazine, November/December 2015, Politics
Secrets of the Chamber
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce exaggerates the dangers of government action to its corporate paymasters and gets paid handsomely, whether it wins or not.
Posted inJune/July/August 2015, Magazine
Low-Information Lawmakers
Why today’s Congress can no longer cope with complex problems.
Posted inGovernment, Magazine, March/April/May 2015, Politics
A Lobbyist Just for You
And two other solutions to counter corporate influence in Washington.
Posted inPolitics
How the Public Thinks About the Environment
The environment now ranks last among 15 issues that the public thinks Congress and the President should deal with this year. Only 24 percent of Americans think the environment is an “extremely important” issue. On this score, the environment comes in behind “the situation in Iraq” (27 percent), “taxes” (27 percent), and “illegal immigration” (30 […]
Posted inPolitics
Why Budget Line Items Don’t Die
In Washington Post last month, David A. Fahrentold marvels at what he calls the “Line Items That Won’t Die” – federal programs that benefit narrow interests, but somehow manage to keep getting funded: “One spends federal money to store cotton bales. Another offers scholars a chance to study Asian-American relations. Two others pay to market […]
Posted inPolitics
Obama Needs a Bipartisan Elder Statesman Road Show to Tackle the Deficit
As President Obama begins taking the budget deficit battle show on the road, he faces a number of obvious challenges. But perhaps the most pressing one is this: In the hyper-polarized political environment, how does a President whose approval ratings are stuck in the 40s successfully make the public case for a serious deficit reduction […]
