The invention of the United States Senate / Daniel Wirls and Stephen Wirls.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wirls, Daniel, 1960-

Contributor:

Wirls, Stephen, 1954-

Series:

Interpreting American politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Congress. Senate--History.

United States.

United States. Congress. Senate.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 274 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

Summary:

The invention of the United States Senate was the most complicated and confounding achievement of the Constitutional Convention. Although much has been written on various aspects of Senate history, this is the first book to examine and link the three central components of the Senate's creation: the theoretical models and institutional precedents leading up to the Constitutional Convention; the work of the Constitutional Convention on both the composition and powers of the Senate; and the initial institutionalization of the Senate from ratification through the early years of Congress. The authors show how theoretical principles of a properly constructed Senate interacted with political interests and power politics in the multidimensional struggle to construct the Senate, before, during, and after the convention.

Contents:

The republican institution

Sources and models : mixed, republican, and liberal

American senates in theory and practice, 1776-1787

The constitutional convention : the Senate and representation

Completing the compromised Senate : composition and powers

Unfounded hopes and fears : the senate during ratification

Reality : the early Senate

From invention to evolution : the irony of the Senate.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-264) and index.

ISBN:

0801874386

0801874394

OCLC:

51878651