Congress, Human Nature, and the Federal Debt: Essays on the Political Psychology of Deficit Spending

Table of contents

• Title Page iii
• Contents vii
• Foreword ix
• Preface xi
• The Debt in Human Perspective 1
• 1 - Introduction 3
• 2 - Politics and Human Nature: Voices from the Past 12
• 3 - Household Finances: Private and Public 24
• II - Psychological Roots of the Debt 35
• 4 - The Anatomy of Political Desire 37
• 5 - The Political Psychology of Public Money 57
• 6 - Constituents and Congress: An Exchange View of the Debt 65
• III - Red Ink and Representative Democracy 79
• 7 - Democracy in Debt: Paradox or Pathology? 81
• 8 - Debt and the Democratic Order 89
• 9 - The Budget Process: A Design for Debt 99
• 10 - Voices from Within: Congress on the Debt 108
• 11 - A New (fiscal) Imperialism? 126
• IV - Will Congress Pay off the Debt, and If So, How? 131
• 12 - The Political Psychology of Debt Retirement 133
• 13 - Four Scenarios 140
• V - A Proposal to Ponder 149
• 14 - Toward a New Fiscal Democracy 151
• Notes 163
• Selected Readings 169
• Index 173
• About the Author 177

Work saved from this book