Figure 1.1 Congressional Approval, 1980-94

Year
-----Approval

Disapproval
Source: Data kindly provided by Professor Kevin A. Hill from American Na-
tional Election Study Cumulative File, 1952-1994. ( Ann Arbor, MI: The Inter-
University Consortium for Political and Social Research, 1995).

dent in several other mass democracies some time ago, but that has been
obscured in the United States by a separation of powers that precluded
the legislative branch from becoming a rubber stamp for the executive
as in virtually all other advanced late twentieth-century democracies.
While Congress retained significantly more of its prerogatives as a
legislature than its counterparts elsewhere, this only seemed to contrib-
ute to governmental gridlock in the United States and popular disgust
with the operations of an unwieldy body that had lost its political au-
thority in a media-dominated mass democracy. The consequence has
been that Congress seizes the public's attention only when its members
accomplish nothing or get embroiled in scandal. Fundamental compo-
nents of the legislative process, such as the brokerage of important
political interests to produce compromises, not only fail to excite the
American public but are also viewed as being at odds with the concept
of "good government" in contemporary American political culture.

Thus it was long-term social and technological forces, rather than
the foibles of its members, that brought Congress to its nadir in public

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