The Path of American Public Policy by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Image 3.2. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (C) offers a toast to Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R) at the U.S. Capitol following President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., on 20 January 1997. © POOL/Reuters/Corbis.

Conclusion: How the Constitutional System of Checks and Balances Makes the American Congress Function Differently Than the British Parliament

Despite all of the hoopla over the Contract, and comparisons made here between the election of 1994 and a parliamentary election, the legislative history of the Contract actually illustrates how different the American presidential system is from the British parliamentary one. What happened during the first three months of the 104th Congress is that Republican leaders attempted to impose some characteristics of the British parliamentary system on the American congressional process: notably, a well-defined legislative agenda and party discipline. “The normal inertia of the institution gave way to a frenetic pace, with major legislation actually passing the House and occasionally the Senate. The Congress acted more like a parliament than a traditional Congress.”41 Although they were successful in actually imposing these characteristics on the House (albeit for a limited time), the system itself is set up in such a way that other, outside barriers limited policy success in ways that are unheard of in the British parliamentary system. To conclude this chapter, let us examine some of the characteristics of the American system that distinguish it from politics in Great Britain.

The Legislative Process Is More Open

One of the reasons why there are so many steps to the American legislative process is to ensure that a large number of voices can be heard. For example, as bills are being considered in both chambers of Congress, there are generally committee hearings, at which outsiders (interest groups, individual citizens, even members of the administration) are invited to participate and testify. After the hearings, committees hold “markup” sessions, when a bill is debated and amended by committee members—both majority and minority. Usually markup is itself open, with the press and public welcome to attend. Prior to committee consideration, subcommittees have often already completed a similar process to consider the same bill. Finally, the bill is considered on the floor, where individual senators and representatives may also make amendments. Again, members of both the majority and minority parties can propose floor amendments to legislation. The process is long, convoluted, and often difficult. No wonder the old saw says that you don’t want to watch either sausages or laws being made!

In contrast, the process for creating legislation is much more streamlined in the British parliamentary system. The majority party, having run on a well-defined agenda, is truly given a mandate to implement it. Party leaders work together to develop legislative language—without the input of the minority party (or parties, as the case may be). The actual writing of legislative language occurs in what we might think of as the old-fashioned “smoke-filled back room.” The government sends legislation to the floor in advanced form, and it is usually not open for amendments.

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