In 1886 Woodrow Wilson received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in the fledging new department of political science. Wilson’s thesis was a discussion of why the American political system, specifically its legislative body, ought to be remodeled to resemble the British Parliament. His doctorate, which already had been published the preceding year as a book entitled Congressional Government, has remained one of the most intriguing challenges to the functionality of the U.S. Congress and how it should be changed.
Wilson had presented many of his ideas already during his undergraduate days at Princeton. Many of Wilson’s ideas appeared in a journal at Princeton edited by Henry Cabot Lodge, who later would become one of Wilson’s greatest nemeses in the Senate. Much of what student Wilson contended as an undergraduate would come home to roost when President Wilson would engage in his historic battle with the Senate in 1919-20. Wilson would challenge the then Republican controlled Senate to cease its partisan opposition to the Senate ratification of the Versailles Treaty and America’s entry into the League of Nations. It would be the Republican Senate leader Henry Cabot Lodge who would lead the “irreconcilables” to defeat the Treaty’s ratification without Lodge’s desired amendments.
The contentions that Wilson presented in his thesis/book are as relevant today as they were in 1919. Wilson’s assertions have become acutely visible in the Congress and particularly in the Senate for the past few decades, especially since 2010. Today the Senate, despite the apparent efforts made by the new President—a veteran of over 30 loving years of service in the upper chamber—appears to need shaking up. While Wilson’s advocacy of the parliamentary model may appear to be rather extreme, his attacks on some of the institutionalized operations in Congress are still very applicable. Wilson recognized the diffusion of power among the committee chairs as well as the lack of one decisive body to make decisions as particularly frustrating for a functioning American Government. In this regard Wilson challenged not only the operating rules of the Congress, but the Constitution itself.
It has become obvious that Congress today cannot organize itself effectively to work as a cohesive body which desires to legislate. One could argue that the British Parliament effectively works that way, but that is because it is designed to be ruled by one party—or a coalition—which holds all the power. The Congress, unlike its British counterpart, historically operated through conflict resolution and compromise. There was bi-partisanship and consensus building between Members and parties. Congress had a modus operandi; regular orders. As the late Senator John McCain observed in his final speech, he was so saddened to see that the U.S. Senate has totally abandoned regular orders. For McCain, the consequences were its replacement with a grossly undignified, non-functioning process.
Leaving aside the domestic terrorist attack of January 6, and the four divisive years orchestrated by President Trump’s disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law, Congress and especially the Senate has become a playground for whichever Party is in control. Senators used to believe that by being elected for six years they enjoyed the luxury to deliberate and permit ideas to germinate and evolve. Congress always was a scene for many infamous legislative battles, but laws were produced because the Members accepted the responsibility that they were serving the people. They would not always win but the other side would compromise as well. The fact is that there appear to be no Republican Senators who can publicly admit that if 70% of the American people support the COVID-19 relief package they should find a path to enact a law together with Democrats. They too should be able to demonstrate Republicans serve the people’s will. The same should be said for guaranteed voting rights, reduction of voter suppression, and infrastructure improvement.
Woodrow Wilson’s model is not the American tradition. One party rarely ruled alone in Washington. Congress is not Westminster and the President is certainly not the Queen. It is time, however, for Congress and especially the Senate to return to its intended form; alternatively, the ugly political polarization ramped in Washington could produce many more challenges to American democracy.
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