The Congress: From the Textbook Era to Recent Times

Introduction 

The American Congress has undergone lots of changes since the founding of the nation to modern times. The textbook era is an important time in the history of the Congress as it was marked by a lot of significant changes. The power of the Speaker was greatly reduced during the onset of the twentieth century as the committee system was ushered in by the legislators. Before this, the speaker presided over major Congressional activities. The Congress during the textbook was bipartisan, and legislators from different political parties engaged with each other to make decisions on issues. The executive through the presidency, during the textbook era, made and presented laws to the Congress. With the textbook era coming to an end in the 1960s, the 1970s ushered in the reform era. The lawmakers reduced the committees’ influence along with the power of the leaders. Partisanship came in and continued through to modern times. The modern-day Congress is primarily characterized by partisanship and increased disagreement between political parties on a broad range of issues. The paper looks at the history and the development of the Congress from the Textbook era through the reform era up to the modern era. 

The Textbook Era 

Congress underwent a significant change at the end of the nineteenth century. One of the most notable changes is the shift towards the committee system where various committees handled various issues. While the transition to the textbook Congress system begun near the end of the nineteenth century, the crucial turning point was 1910 ( Wilson, 2017) . The textbook system would then go on, all the way to the 1960s where it came to its decline. During this time, the country and the world, in general, underwent a series of ups and downs. Events such as the first and the second world wars, the Great Depression, the cold war period, civil rights issues, healthcare issues, and education-related issues rocked the government and the United States in general. The Congress of the textbook era is organizationally stable given the way with which it approached and dealt with issues. Congress did not bend easily to or make any considerable attempts to embrace change. Issues such as medical care for the elderly took long to go through Congress. The civil rights activists spent years trying to get their views through the Congress with little progress. Education reforms and issues such as more spending on education stalled through Congress due to wrangling. 

In 1910, the House of Representatives came together and passed a law that limited the power of the Speaker to preside over specific issues such as selecting the Rules Committee. Another responsibility of the House of Representatives was also making rules which makes committee leaders powerful. As a result, the committees gained more popularity and control in the Congress as it suppressed the Speaker’s powers. In Congress, members from different parties came together while dealing with specific issues and made decisions in unison. Members are believed to have developed ways of meeting behind closed doors where they build bridges through compromises and come up with solutions to issues. Hence, bipartisanship was a significant characteristic of the era. Political parties came together in Congress while dealing with various issues. It explains why it was not easy for Congress to embrace change and consider new ways of approaching issues facing the American people at the time. Also, the committee system gave way for senior members to become influential leaders in Congress. They easily persuaded the rest of the members and had their ideologies and views taken up and supported by the rest of the members. Another feature of the textbook era was the odd relationship between Congress and the Presidency. Most specifically, after the great recession of the 1930s, the presidents that came into power took reversed the system of making laws. Instead of the Congress making laws the executive made laws and presented them to the Congress to oversee. This factor significantly limited the power of Congress. 

The Reform Era 

The world was going through lots of changes in the twentieth century. Changes occurred in the political, economic and social levels of the public sphere. Congress was waking up, and with new and younger individuals getting into the Congress, a transformation was inevitable. Issues such as medical care for the elderly, civil rights issues, and the need to reform education were increasingly coming up. At the beginning of the 1960s, the committee Congress system had begun wearing off as new members became more independent in their activities. The reform era took root in the 1970s and did away with bipartisan where individual Congress members disregarded party mandates and worked with fellow members from other parties to go about various issues presented in the Congress ( Finocchiaro & Rohde, 2008) . More members began aligning themselves with their political parties and refraining from dealing with members from other parties. The new members of the Congress disregarded the superiority of the committee chairs leading to the collapse of the committee systems. These new group of legislators was too impatient and quite eager to use their expertise and excise their power and mandate. They were not worried about going against the senior members of the House such as the Committee chairs. 

The odd nature of the relationship between the Congress and the Presidency, a characteristic of the textbook Congress, was one of the issues that policymakers dealt with during the reform era. In the House, legislators further formed subcommittees which gave more authority to individual members. The move liberated powers of legislators in both houses. There was a restoration the Congress's authority to make laws limiting the executive from presenting made laws to the Congress. The reform or the revolt of the 1970s also made other changes in the Congress such as restoring or enhancing the power of the Speaker of both Houses as well as the power of the party leaders. Various issues such as inconsistency in parties and lobbying also arose during and after the reform era. Increased individuality in the Congress affected individual parties negatively, especially those that had majority members in the Houses. Disagreements arose not only between major political parties but also between individual members within each party. For instance, under the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the Democrats had challenges passing major policy initiatives due to the inability to generate consistent majorities. While laws had been passed to limit political parties from receiving funds from individuals, lobbying was a characteristic of the Congress of the reform period. External individuals lobbied their way into the Congress influencing members to vote on or support various policies and activities in their interest. The government could fund various projects, could be used to purchase various items for congressional offices, with the motive of getting members to do the biddings of the lobbyists. 

The Post Reform Era (Modern-day Congress) 

The modern-day Congress is in many ways different from the Congress of the previous times while also remaining similar in certain aspects. Changes in the American society and the world in general, through the second half of the twentieth century and the new century, have impacted on the nature and operations of the modern Congress. Representation is key to legislators in modern times. A representative, for instance, is much more concerned with matters affecting his or her constituency as compared to the past. The composition of the individual legislators in both houses has also changed in recent time. While during the textbook era, there were hardly women and members from minority groups, today both houses have good numbers of women and members from minority groups. The civil rights movements and campaigns against gender inequality have ensured the transformation of the Congress to include legislators from all gender and racial groups in America. As opposed to the textbook, era, Congress today has much power with regards to making laws and exercising oversight. Every policy must successfully pass through the Congress before it reaches the president. Today, it is essential for the winning part in the general election to gain majority seats in both houses ( Wilson, 2017) . 

Committees and party leaders remain essential in the modern-day Congress. Party leaders have high power and influence over other party members. Party leaders represent other members and their views. Congress assigns Committees special assignments in the current Congress, which they carry out as mandated. Committees are key in modern-day Congress as most of the work of the Congress is done through committees. In the textbook era, legislators engaged in bipartisanship in Congress and made compromises in order to come up with solutions to various issues. In the reform period, partisanship came in with individual legislators breaking away from bipartisanship and presenting their ideologies. The trend has continued through the post-reform era and into modern times. 

The modern-day Congress presents a similar characteristic as the reform era Congress regarding partisanship. The only difference is the issue of inconsistency of party members during the reform era. In the reform era, individual legislators had disagreements among themselves within their party. Today’s legislators are loyal to their parties, supporting every decisions and policy as agreed upon by their parties. Any legislator hardly goes against the wishes or the decisions of his or her party. It is why every major party today fights as hard as possible to gain majority seats in both houses. The party with the majority seats in both houses literally takes hold of the power of the Congress ( Wilson, 2017) . Congress leaves policies affecting the nations in the hand of the members of the majority party. It has further fueled the enmity between political parties within Congress. In recent times, the disagreement between political parties has increased across almost every issue in the American political arena. No matter how much a decision by a party seems irrational, all the members will stand by the party. It unlikely that major political parties today will agree or present similar ideologies regarding any issue or policy. The public interest is also regarded highly by political parties as it influences votes. The members present every issue or policy while focusing on winning public admirations. Those caught on the wrong side risk losing their seat in subsequent elections. The modern-day Congress is, therefore, in many ways different from the Congress of the previous eras. 

Conclusion 

The Congress, as discussed has gone through lots of transformation from the textbook era to recent times. The Congress has seen periods of bipartisanship and presidential superiority, periods of partisanship and independent authority by subcommittees and periods of tensions and increased disagreements between political parties. Features such as the committee system in the textbook era, however, still exist in the modern-day Congress. 

References 

Finocchiaro, C. J., & Rohde, D. W. (2008). War for the floor: Partisan theory and agenda control in the US House of Representatives.  Legislative Studies Quarterly ,  33 (1), 35-61. 

Wilson, W. (2017).  Congressional government: A study in American politics . Routledge.