On Congress

I don't recall when I first became aware of The Broken Branch by Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann.  The book laments how Congress has transformed over the years.   Power has been centralized from committees into the leadership.  Rank-and-file members do much less work than in the past, sometimes spending only three days a week in Washington.

Justin Amash has echoed the complaint, saying "On ordinary legislative matters, most members of Congress don’t think anymore. They just follow whatever they’re told by their leadership."

I found this most interesting and a bit nostalgic.  You see, I went to college during the heyday of Congressional decentralization.  And wouldn't you know, in my political science class we had a book from leading political scientists of the day lamenting the fragmentation of power in Congress and its decentralization, first from the leadership to the committees, and now to the sub-committees, and even individual members.  Lobbyists were quoted complaining that they could no longer rely on appeals to party loyalty, but had to persuade members on the merits, with high-quality materials.  And members of Congress worked grueling hours and looked back longingly, not just to the early days of the Republic when Congress was not even in session most of the year, but as recently as the 1950's when hours were at least manageable. 

Our professor spoke approvingly of when Congress was ruled by "whales" and all the little "minnows" swam where they were directed.  His heroes were Sam Rayburn (speaker of the House) and Lyndon B. Johnson (as Senate Majority Leader).  He spoke with admiration of "the Johnson treatment" with which Johnson browbeat holdouts into submission. 

And I will say it makes sense that it makes sense that if decision making is centralized in the leadership, there is less for the rank-and-file to do; while if decision making is decentralized, the rank-and-file will have to work a lot harder.  As for the rest, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon B. Johnson were before my time, but they would be impressive indeed if they could hold their caucuses together as well as Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.*  Once again, "whales" rule and "minnows" swim where they are told.

Which way is better?  I really don't know enough about Congress in the days of Rayburn and Johnson to say.  Certainly my instincts are for decentralization.  Ornstein and Mann warn that when the leadership crafts bills without proper hearing by committee, the quality of legislation suffers.  I can't say how that worked out in the Rayburn/Johnson days.  But of this I am confident.  Congress was less rigidly partisan then than it is now.  Cooperation with a President of the opposing party (or oversight of a President of one's own party) had not become unthinkable.  Whatever the case then, today centralization is simply a symptom of partisanship.

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*Other Speakers of the House, such as John Boehner and Paul Ryan have been notably less effective.