RestorationSimon and Schuster, 2010 M05 11 - 272 páginas From Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will, whose “thinking is stimulating, erudite, and makes for great reading” (The Boston Globe) comes a “biting, humorous, and perceptive” (The New York Times Book Review) argument for the necessity of term limits in Congress. The world’s oldest democracy—ours—has an old tradition of skepticism about government. However, the degree of dismay about government today is perhaps unprecedented in our history. Americans are particularly convinced that Congress has become irresponsible, either unwilling or incapable of addressing the nation’s problems—while it spends its time and our money on extending its members’ careers. Many Americans have come to believe fundamental reform is needed, specifically limits on the number of terms legislators can serve. In Restoration, George Will makes a compelling case, drawn from our history and his close observance of Congress, that term limits are now necessary to revive the traditional values of classical republican government, to achieve the Founders’ goal of deliberative democracy, and to restore Congress to competence and its rightful dignity as the First Branch of government. At stake, Will says, is the vitality of America’s great promise self-government under representative institutions. At issue is the meaning of representation. The morality of representative government, Will argues, does not merely permit, it requires representatives to exercise independent judgment rather than merely execute instructions given by constituents. However, careerism, which is a consequence of the professionalization of politics, has made legislators servile and has made the national legislature incapable of rational, responsible behavior. Term limits would restore the constitutional space intended by the Founders, the healthy distance between the electors and the elected that is necessary for genuine deliberation about the public interest. Blending the political philosophy of the Founders with alarming facts about the behavior of legislative careerists, Restoration demonstrates how term limits, by altering the motives of legislators, can narrow the gap between the theory and the practice of American democracy. |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Restoration: Congress, Term Limits, and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy George F. Will Vista de fragmentos - 1992 |
Restoration: Congress, Term Limits, and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy George F. Will Vista de fragmentos - 1992 |
Términos y frases comunes
American history American politics argued argument balanced budget amendment become Bush career legislators careerists century classical republicanism Cobb County Cold War Congress Congressional Quarterly constitutional amendment culture decision deficit deliberation deliberative democracy Democratic district election ernment fact factions federal government Federalist Founders Framers government's Hamilton hence House ical idea incumbents institutions interest Jefferson Jeffersonian leadership Lee O'Daniel legislative careerism legislatures less Lyndon Johnson Madison majority means ment million modern mohair nation Niskanen November opponents of term Ornstein party peanuts Percent Seats political scientists politicians popular sovereignty presidential problem produce professional public opinion public television reason reelection reform representation representatives republic rhetorical presidency Roll Call seek Senate sentiments serve social society spending supposed term limits movement Texas theory things tion tive today's U.S. Senate U.S. Term Limits virtue voters votes Washington Woodrow Wilson wool
Pasajes populares
Página 99 - If government were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. But government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination ; and what sort of reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion ; in which one set of men deliberate, and another decide ; and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments...
Página 46 - ... less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.
Página 118 - When occasions present themselves in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests to withstand the temporary delusion in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.
Página 118 - The republican principle demands, that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs ; but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion, or to every transient impulse which the people may receive from the arts of men who flatter their prejudices, to betray their interests.
Página 150 - Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.
Página 105 - If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
Página 99 - Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
Página 136 - This is the high enterprise of the new day; to lift everything that concerns our life as a nation to the light that shines from the hearth-fire of every man's conscience and vision of the right.
Página 136 - At last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life as a whole. We see the bad with the good, the debased and decadent with the sound and vital. With this vision we approach new affairs.
Página 193 - Your station in the councils of our country gives you an opportunity of producing it to public consideration, of forcing it into discussion. At first blush it may be laughed at, as the dream of a theorist; but examination will prove it to be solid and salutary.
Referencias a este libro
Demanding Choices: Opinion, Voting, and Direct Democracy Shaun Bowler,Todd Donovan Sin vista previa disponible - 2000 |