Simply the best book on Congress ever written. Arnold's conclusions stand up just as well today in 2018 as they did when he wrote them in 1990. Like many other scholars of the time, Arnold found that special interests were the overwhelming beneficiaries of congressional transparency. He wrote:
"Two decades later, after the advent of sunshine laws, we know better. Open markup sessions often give organized interests a powerful advantage over inattentive citizens, for they can monitor exactly who is doing what to benefit and to hurt them."
It is chilling how few people have understood this work. Yet some of this is perhaps because of Arnold's language. Instead of 'special interests' or 'lobbyists' he uses the term 'attentive publics'. Instead of 'transparency' he uses 'traceability.' Odd terminology like this can really disguise an important message.
One last quote for those interested in why tax bills favor the wealthy (yup it is transparency again):
"The switch from the quiet back-room deals of the Ways and Means Committee to the more open procedures of the Finance Committee and the Senate floor shows how tax preferences thrive in the sunshine. It is relatively easy for legislators to turn down proposals for expanding tax preferences, or even to approve contractions, if their actions are hidden from public view. It is considerably more difficult to do so if legislators must vote publicly, either in committee or on the floor, to deny their constituents a share of group benefits. As Congress began in the 1970s to write tax bills more openly, legislators faced an increasing number of roll-call votes on tax preferences. In fact, during this one decade there were more than twice as many roll-call votes in favor of creating or modifying tax preferences as there had been in the six previous decades. As legislators voted publicly on these matters, they quite naturally voted to approve expanded tax preferences."
He mentions gun control and numerous other problems in the same light. Arnold leaves his strongest point for the last page of his book.
"Legislators have discovered the strengths and weaknesses of specific procedures by trial and error. Open meetings, open rules, unlimited recorded votes seemed like good ideas when they were proposed, and they were backed by Common Cause and others who sought to reduce the power of special interests. Unfortunately, these reforms were based on a faulty understanding of the mechanisms that allow for citizens’ control. We now know that open meetings filled with lobbyists, and recorded votes on scores of particularistic amendments, serve to increase the power of special interests, not diminish them."
One would think that this should be on the first page and then he'd explore the reasons and context for this. Oh well. It is still a great book
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I ordered this book and instead received a book called "The Little Seagull Handbook" that had a Logic of Congressional Action sticker on the back.
I ordered this book and instead received a book called ...
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2016
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