Preface<br >This book， like the first edition， is the product of our personal fascination and<br >professional experience with a most complex and perplexing body， the United<br >States Congress. As academic political scientists， we have written technical<br >studies about Congress and its lawmakers; taught undergraduate and<br >graduate courses; conducted workshops for officials in this country and in<br >Europe， Africa， and Latin America; and tried to interpret congressional<br >trends for wider audiences through lectures and writings. We also have been<br >privileged to serve as professional staff members for several House and Senate<br >committees and commissions that have attempted to reexamine congressional<br >organization and operations. Finally， we serve as "in-house" researchers in<br >the oldest of the four legislative support agencies， the Congressional Research<br >Service.<br > In writing this book， we have in mind both general readers seeking an<br >introduction to the modern Congress and college or university students taking<br >courses on the legislative process and national policy making. The book has as<br >its organizing theme the tensions between Congress as a collection of<br >individuals and Congress as an institution， but we have tried not to allow this<br >theme to obscure treatment of the history， structure， behavior， and policy role<br >of Congress.<br > As our first edition went to press in 1981， the Republicans had just<br >captured the Senate for the first time in a generation， and the Reagan<br >juggernaut was in full swing on Capitol Hill. It was one of those rare<br >moments--only the fourth in this century--when the irresistible momentum<br >of presidential leadership， backed by popular support， swept aside congres-<br >sional roadblocks to effect far-reaching shifts in the political agenda and<br >programmatic priorities.<br >XV<br >

Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland, and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. For the 2001-2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990's, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995), and Understanding the Presidency, Third Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2003). Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995).

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993, he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A long-time adjunct faculty member at The American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer before various academic, governmental and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congress and Its Members, 10th ed. (2006),with Roger H. Davidson, and Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority (1997), with C. Lawrence Evans.

Frances E. Lee is associate professor of government and politics at University of Maryland. She has been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an APSA Congressional Fellow. She coauthored Sizing Up The Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation with Bruce I. Oppenheimer, which won the D. B. Hardeman Prize in 1999. Her articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.