A Note on the President's Modest Proposal

Abstract

ROPOSALS to up-date, streamline, 'modernize, or Congress are not exactly rare. At this moment the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress is pondering reform proposals; the Brookings Institution has commissioned a number of studies bearing on the subject; so has the American Enterprise Institute; and the American Political Science Association has its Study of Congress. But it is no secret that much of the political steam has gone out of the drive for Congressional reform. This steam was generated in the heat of battle in the 86th Congress, where an overwhelmingly liberal Democratic majority was largely thwarted in its attempts to enact a program. Several years have gone by, and most of the programs lost in that year-and a good many others besides-are now law. Meaningful changes have been introduced piecemeal into the organizational structure, especially into that of the House of Representatives, without drastic institutional reforms. There is a sense, then, in which the President's recent proposal in his 1966 State of the Union Address to amend the Constitution, provide four-year terms for Representatives, and elect the entire House and the President together, is something of a surprise. It is also going to be a political Pandora's box. For no matter how uplifting the rhetoric with which this modest proposal is debatedand if the pieties uttered on the issue so far are any sample, this is going to be an excruciatingly uplifting debate-no man can tell what the political consequences will be if the amendment is enacted. Consider the following twelve predictions, each, in its way, entirely plausible and realistic: > The President's proposal to amend the Constitution and provide four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives leads to twelve predictions, many of which are mutually contradictory, about the effects of the change. It is concluded that the proposal is insufficiently grounded in thought about the role of elections in the political system.