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There is widespread agreement that the South has changed dramatically since the end of World War II—the essays in The Disappearing South address the ongoing debate

There is widespread agreement that the South has changed dramatically since the end of World War II. Social, demographic, economic, and political changes have altered significantly the region long considered the nation’s most distinctive. There is less agreement, however, about the extent to which the forces of nationalization have eroded the major elements of Southern distinctiveness. Although this volume does not purport to settle the debate on Southern political change, it does present a variety of recent evidence that helps put this important debate into perspective. In the process it helps clarify the contemporary politics of the South for readers ranging from the scholar to the more casual observer.

The essays in The Disappearing South address the ongoing debate. Contributors, in addition to the editors, include E. Lee Bernick, Earl Black, Merle Black, Lewis Bowman, Edward G. Carmines, Patrick Cotter, Thomas Eamon, Douglas G. Feig, John C. Green, James L. Guth, William E. Hulbary, Anne E. Kelley, Lyman A. Kellstedt, David M. Olson, John Shelton Reed, Harold Stanley, James G. Stovall, John Theilmann, Stephen H. Wainscott, and Allen Wilhite.

The institutional development of American legislatures, beginning with the first colonial assembly of 1619, has been marked by continuity as well as change. Peverill Squire draws upon a wealth of primary sources to document this institutional history. Beginning with the ways in which colonial assemblies followed the precedents of British institutions, Squire traces the fundamental ways they evolved to become distinct. He next charts the formation of the first state legislatures and the Constitutional Congress, describes the creation of territorial and new state legislatures, and examines the institutionalization of state legislatures in the nineteenth century and their professionalization since 1900.

With his conclusion, Squire discusses the historical trajectory of American legislatures and suggests how they might further develop over the coming decades. While Squire's approach will appeal to historians, his focus on the evolution of rules, procedures, and standing committee systems, as well as member salaries, legislative sessions, staff, and facilities, will be valuable to political scientists and legislative scholars.

The House and the Senate floors are the only legislative forums where all members of the U.S. Congress participate and each has a vote. Andrew J. Taylor explores why floor power and floor rights in the House are more restricted than in the Senate and how these restrictions affect the legislative process. After tracing the historical development of floor rules, Taylor assesses how well they facilitate a democratic legislative process---that is, how well they facilitate deliberation, transparency, and widespread participation.

Taylor not only compares floor proceedings between the Senate and the House in recent decades; he also compares recent congressional proceedings with antebellum proceedings. This unique, systematic analysis reveals that the Senate is generally more democratic than the House---a somewhat surprising result, given that the House is usually considered the more representative and responsive of the two. Taylor concludes with recommendations for practical reforms designed to make floor debates more robust and foster representative democracy.

An astute, data-rich examination of the structural reasons that elections fail to hold US city officials accountable.

In the United States, hundreds of thousands of elected and appointed officials serve more than 50,000 subnational governments, making important decisions about services ranging from education to infrastructure to policing. The provision of critical city services shapes citizens’ everyday lives.

Supposedly, local politicians are the elected representatives closest to the people they serve, but are they actually accountable to their constituents? Justin de Benedictis-Kessner shows that they are not: local elections routinely fail to punish bad politicians or reward strong performers. The Fog of Accountability argues that this is because urban politics is defined by minimally effective competition, complex institutions that confuse voters, and a lack of effective media coverage. These institutional features combine to stymie even well-intentioned voters and make accountability difficult. Fixing these problems is challenging, but, as de Benedictis-Kessner shows, change is possible if we can enable citizens to reclaim and assert their political power.

In the shadow of Watergate and the Vietnam War, Gerald Ford’s presidency has long been dismissed as little more than an interim administration. Yet the administration and its British counterparts worked to manage economic crises, Cold War tensions, and international flashpoints, while also harnessing cultural diplomacy to sustain transatlantic partnership. Drawing on newly declassified archival sources and fresh historical analysis, The Ford Administration and Anglo-American Relations shows how Ford’s years in office (1974–77) were pivotal in reshaping the US–UK special relationship at a moment of global turbulence.

Organized thematically rather than chronologically, the authors examine eight dimensions of Anglo-American relations under Ford: the inheritance of transatlantic tensions from the Nixon era; cultural and societal links beyond the state; the significance of Ford’s personal diplomacy; negotiations over defense and security; transformations in international economic relations and the birth of the G6/G7; cooperation through multilateral institutions such as NATO and the UN; joint management of crises in Cyprus and Rhodesia to the sterling currency crisis; and the cultural diplomacy of the 1976 Bicentennial, when Queen Elizabeth II’s state visit symbolized renewed unity between former adversaries. By highlighting both the challenges and the resilience of Anglo-American ties, this book recasts a neglected presidency as a crucial bridge between the crises of the Nixon years and the celebrated Reagan–Thatcher era. Accessible yet deeply researched, it is a work that will appeal to anyone interested in how two nations, facing uncertainty at home and abroad, turned to multilateral cooperation, culture, and public diplomacy to navigate the upheavals of the 1970s.

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Tracing the Southern Origins of Modern American Conservatism.

Audacious in its scope, subtle in its analysis, and persuasive in its arguments, The Great Melding is the second book in Glenn Feldman’s magisterial recounting of the South’s transformation from a Reconstruction-era citadel of Democratic Party inertia to a cauldron of GOP agitation. In this pioneering study, Feldman shows how the transitional years after World War II, the Dixiecrat episode, and the early 1950s formed a pivotal sequence of events that altered America’s political landscape in profound, fundamental, and unexpected ways.

Feldman’s landmark work The Irony of the Solid South dismantled the myth of the New Deal consensus, proving it to be only a fleeting alliance of fissiparous factions; The Great Melding further examines how the South broke away from that consensus. Exploring issues of race and white supremacy, Feldman documents and explains the roles of economics, religion, and emotive appeals to patriotism in southern voting patterns. His probing and original analysis includes a discussion of the limits of southern liberalism and a fresh examination of the Dixiecrat Revolt of 1948.

Feldman convincingly argues that the Dixiecrats—often dismissed as a transitory footnote in American politics—served as a template for the modern conservative movement. Now a predictable Republican stronghold, Alabama at the time was viewed by national political strategists as a battleground and bellwether. Masterfully synthesizing a vast range of sources, Feldman shows that Alabama was then one of the few states where voters made unpredictable choices between the competing ideologies of the Democrats, Republicans, and Dixiecrats.

Writing in his lively and provocative style, Feldman demonstrates that the events he recounts in Alabama between 1942 and Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 election encapsulate a rare moment of fluidity in American politics, one in which the New Deal consensus shattered and the Democratic and Republican parties fought off a third-party revolt only to find themselves irrevocably altered by their success. The Great Melding will fascinate historians, political scientists, political strategists, and readers of political nonfiction.

The Hidden Face of Local Power explicates the purpose, role, and consequences of appointed boards in U.S. cities. Mirya Holman finds cities create strong boards that generate policy, consolidate power, and defend the interests of businesses and wealthy and white residents. In contrast, weak boards pacify agitation from marginalized groups to give the appearance of inclusivity, democratic deliberation, and redistributional policymaking. Cities preserve this strong board/weak board dichotomy through policymaking power, institutional design, and by controlling who serves on the boards.

The Hidden Face of Local Power examines the role of boards in the development of urban political institutions, the allocation of power in local politics, and the persistence of inequality. Holman enhances our understanding of how political institutions have contributed to racism and their impact on how people use and live in urban spaces. In her shrewd analysis of the creation and use of boards as political institutions, Holman proves that neither weak or strong boards achieves the goal they are advertised to achieve. In doing so, she provides a new view of the failures of local democracy along with ideas for improvement.  

Veteran reporter Ray Long draws on four decades of observing state government to provide the definitive political analysis of Michael Madigan. Secretive, intimidating, shrewd, power-hungry--Madigan mesmerized his admirers and often left his opponents too beaten down to oppose him. Long vividly recreates the battles that defined the Madigan era, from stunning James Thompson with a lightning-strike tax increase, to pressing for a pension overhaul that ultimately failed in the courts, to steering the House toward the Rod Blagojevich impeachment. Long also shines a light on the machinery that kept the Speaker in power. Head of a patronage army, Madigan ruthlessly used his influence and fundraising prowess to reward loyalists and aid his daughter’s electoral fortunes. At the same time, he reshaped bills to guarantee he and his Democratic troops shared in the partisan spoils of his legislative victories. Yet Madigan’s position as the state’s seemingly invulnerable power broker could not survive scandals among his close associates and the widespread belief that his time as Speaker had finally reached its end.

Unsparing and authoritative, The House That Madigan Built is the page-turning account of one the most powerful politicians in Illinois history.

In a state assumed to have a constitutionally weak governor, the Speaker of the Texas House wields enormous power, with the ability to almost single-handedly dictate the legislative agenda. The House Will Come to Order charts the evolution of the Speaker's role from a relatively obscure office to one of the most powerful in the state. This fascinating account, drawn from the Briscoe Center's oral history project on the former Speakers, is the story of transition, modernization, and power struggles.

Weaving a compelling story of scandal, service, and opportunity, Patrick Cox and Michael Phillips describe the divisions within the traditional Democratic Party, the ascendance of Republicans, and how Texas business, agriculture, and media shaped perceptions of officeholders. While the governor and lieutenant governor wielded their power, the authors show how the modern Texas House Speaker built an office of equal power as the state became more complex and diverse. The authors also explore how race, class, and gender affected this transition as they explain the importance of the office in Texas and the impact the state's Speakers have had on national politics.

At the apex of its power, the Texas House Speaker's role at last receives the critical consideration it deserves.

There exists a rich literature on the workings of the United States Congress, but The House at Work is the first book to focus on the institutional performance of the House of Representatives. A complete overview of the complex functioning and dynamics of Congress is presented by distinguished contributors, drawing upon both real-life experience and organization theory.

Each essay presents material on activities central to legislative work in the House, including the internal operations of member and committee offices, the administrative support system of the House, the impact of organizational structure and information resources on individual decision making, the expanding application of computer technology, the character of the personnel system, and the processing of constituent casework.

Nearly all contributors were professional staff members of the U.S. House Commission on Administrative Review in 1976 and 1977, whose analysis of the internal operations of the House was acomprehensive investigation. Their academic training, buttressed by significant practical experience on Capitol Hill, makes this book of great value to both students and scholars of the legislative process. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Glenn R. Parker, Thomas E. Cavanagh, Allan J. Katz, John R. Johannes, Thomas J. O'Donnell, David W. Brady, Louis Sandy Maisel, Susan Webb Hammond, Jarold A. Kieffer, James A. Thurber, and Jeffrey A. Goldberg.

A provocative reevaluation of the power that the minority party in Congress wields beyond obstruction.

In The Indispensable Minority, Andrew Ballard and James M. Curry dispel a common assumption about American politics: that congressional majorities govern and congressional minorities merely obstruct. Drawing on four decades of legislative data, an original database of the most consequential lawmaking efforts since 1987, and candid interviews with veteran Capitol Hill staffers, the authors reveal that minority parties shape major legislation far more often than typically thought—both collectively and through the efforts of individual lawmakers.

As Ballard and Curry show, the key to minority influence lies not in procedural tricks like the filibuster, but in the interplay of raw political forces: how constrained the majority party is as it tries to act on its legislative agenda, how well the minority party can hold together as a cohesive bloc, and whether the minority chooses to engage in legislating rather than electoral posturing. When these conditions align, congressional minority parties don't just block bills—they help write them.

Rich with historical cases and sharp new evidence, The Indispensable Minority reshapes how we understand party power, congressional gridlock, and the health of American democracy itself. Far from a symptom of dysfunction, the authors argue, minority party influence is a vital—and indispensable—feature of how the American system is supposed to work.

Campaign contributions are widely viewed as a corrupting influence but most scholarly research concludes that they have marginal impact on legislative behavior. Lynda W. Powell shows that contributions have considerable influence in some state legislatures but very little in others. Using a national survey of legislators, she develops an innovative measure of influence and delineates the factors that explain this great variation across the 99 U.S. state legislative chambers.

Powell identifies the personal, institutional, and political factors that determine how much time a legislator devotes to personal fundraising and fundraising for the caucus. She shows that the extent of donors' legislative influence varies in ways corresponding to the same variations in the factors that determine fundraising time. She also confirms a link between fundraising and lobbying with evidence supporting the theory that contributors gain access to legislators based on donations, Powell's findings have important implications for the debate over the role of money in the legislative process.

Rethinking governance: Where democracy meets administration.

This revised and expanded third edition extends Ostrom’s analysis to account for the most resent developments in American politics, including those of the Clinton and Bush administrations.

First published in 1973, The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration remains one of the most influential critiques of the administrative state. Vincent Ostrom examines the intellectual roots of American public administration, questioning whether centralized bureaucratic systems align with the constitutional principles of self-governance. Through a rigorous analysis of institutional design, federalism, and public choice theory, Ostrom advocates for polycentric governance—an approach that empowers citizens and decentralizes authority. This seminal work continues to inspire debates on accountability, legitimacy, and the future of democratic administration.

Race, Politics, and the Making of the Modern South.

The Irony of the Solid South examines how the south became the “Solid South” for the Democratic Party and how that solidarity began to crack with the advent of American involvement in World War II. Relying on a sophisticated analysis of secondary research—as well as a wealth of deep research in primary sources such as letters, diaries, interviews, court cases, newspapers, and other archival materials—Glenn Feldman argues in The Irony of the Solid South that the history of the solid Democratic south is actually marked by several ironies that involve a concern with the fundamental nature of southern society and culture and the central place that race and allied types of cultural conservatism have played in ensuring regional distinctiveness and continuity across time and various partisan labels. Along the way, this account has much to say about the quality and nature of the New Deal in Dixie, southern liberalism, and its fatal shortcomings.

Feldman focuses primarily on Alabama and race but also considers at length circumstances in the other southern states as well as insights into the uses of emotional issues other than race that have been used time and again to distract whites from their economic and material interests. Feldman explains how conservative political forces (Bourbon Democrats, Dixiecrats, Wallace, independents, and eventually the modern GOP) ingeniously fused white supremacy with economic conservatism based on the common glue of animus to the federal government. A second great melding is exposed, one that joined economic fundamentalism to the religious kind along the shared axis of antidemocratic impulses.

Feldman’s study has much to say about southern and American conservatism, the enduring power of cultural and emotional issues, and the modern south’s path to becoming solidly Republican.

An intimate and revelatory memoir on personal challenges, political turmoil, and the state of American democracy―now in paperback with a new preface

During the past few years, as our country has faced unprecedented challenges, Senator Amy Klobuchar has been in the room where it happens―on the Senate floor for critical votes during the pandemic, at the debate podium during one of the most crucial presidential primaries in U.S. history, and in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when insurrectionists stormed the building, interrupting the certification of the Electoral College. It was well past midnight when Klobuchar stood beside then–Vice President Pence to officially certify President Biden's victory.

In her candid, honest, and at times bitingly funny memoir, the pragmatic senator shares insider stories from these historic moments, while also inviting readers into her personal life. An underdog in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign, she built surprising early momentum, only to suspend her candidacy in order to support Joe Biden. Within weeks of returning to work in the Senate, the sudden onslaught of Covid-19 hit her family directly: her husband was hospitalized for a week and spent a month in isolation. Klobuchar shares her experience facing a cancer diagnosis while her beloved father succumbs to Alzheimer's. She recounts the dramatic narrative of January 6 and how close we came to losing our democracy. And, with her signature humor, she reveals what it's like to work with some of her more . . . well, interesting . . . colleagues.

At the crux of these stories is a narrative of resilience—of personal resilience and the resilience of a nation—and, improbably, joy.

Congress and the president are not the only branches that deal with fiscal issues in times of war. In this innovative book, Nancy Staudt focuses on the role of federal courts in fiscal matters during warfare and high-cost national defense emergencies. There is, she argues, a judicial power of the purse that becomes evident upon examining the budgetary effects of judicial decision making. The book provides substantial evidence that judges are willing—maybe even eager—to redirect private monies into government hands when the country is in peril, but when the judges receive convincing cues that ongoing wartime activities undermine the nation’s interests, they are more likely to withhold funds from the government by deciding cases in favor of private individuals and entities who show up in court.

In stark contrast with conventional legal, political, and institutional thought that privileges factors associated with individual preferences, The Judicial Power of the Purse sheds light on environmental factors in judicial decision making and will be an excellent read for students of judicial behavior in political science and law.

Who did members of the early US Senate represent? Many scholarly and popular political accounts of the Antebellum era assume that senators were exclusively representatives of the state governments because pre-reform senators were chosen by state legislatures. However, The Less Responsive Chamber? examines senators’ relationships with three potential targets of representation—the state governments, the state legislature, and the electorate of the state.

Through both empirical analyses and detailed case studies, the book demonstrates that senators cared about the public and did not strictly view their representational role as one of being faithful agents to state governments. While senators’ floor speeches, circulars, and correspondences frequently referenced the state electorate as their primary constituency, they were often directed to represent a variety of interests. Further, senators were aware of and responded to public opinion as well as intrastate political dynamics. By documenting how the interests of political parties, states, and the public influenced the Senate’s behavior during the early years of the United States, this book offers insight into a period whose fraught politics continue to impact our lives today.

Lex rex—Latin for “the law is king”—expresses a foundational principle of human liberty: that the law, rather than the will of any individual ruler, is the ultimate governmental authority. This principle was at the heart of the American Revolution and remains essential to the functioning and endurance of America today. For 250 years, the United States has been tested by political conflict, social change, and institutional challenges, yet the rule of law has remained central to the nation’s constitutional order.

Asa Hutchinson’s distinguished career—as a former US attorney, member of the US House of Representatives, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under secretary of Homeland Security, and governor of Arkansas—offers a unique perspective from which to examine the lasting significance of lex rex in contemporary America.

Drawing on Hutchinson’s work at the intersection of law, politics, and public service, The Lex Rex Effect explores how the principles of law, justice, and constitutional government underpin democracy. Through personal stories and thoughtful analysis, Hutchinson considers the forces that sustain our democracy and argues for the perennial importance of a system in which the law—not an autocrat’s whim—reigns supreme in the land.

In this study, Mr. Goodwin deals with decision making in the American Congress. He maintains that competition among political organizations and government institutions plays an extremely important role, but that political parties, both parliamentary and national, are relatively weak participants in the struggles. Mr. Goodwin shows that the bipartisan, specialized standing committees, often acting as surrogates for the whole Congress, are a powerful force in Congress, and are on occasion powerful enough to stand as equals of the President. The author makes clear that any analysis of decision making must appreciate the strength of the committees, and their particular place in the democratic process. The Little Legislatures traces the development of the committee system in both the House and the Senate from the beginning of World War II through the Johnson Administration. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the organization, make-up, and assignment traditions of the standing committees, and presents innovative ideas for reform of the system.