Book Reviews : Congress in Action: The Environmental Education Act. By DENNIS W. BREZINA AND ALLEN OVERMYER. (New York: Free Press, 1974. Pp. xx, 210. $7.95.) The Dance of Legislation. By ERIC REDMAN. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973. Pp. 320. $7.95.)

• Author: Robert S. Ross
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297502800124
• Published date: 01 March 1975
• Date: 01 March 1975
• Subject Matter: Articles

216

Bryan

T.

Downes,

in

his

book

of

readings

entitled

Cities

and

Suburbs

( 19’7I ) ,

stated

that

&dquo;cases

are

seldom

guided

by

any

explicitly

stated

conceptual

framework

or

model.&dquo;

And

as

if

to

drive

the

last

nail

in

the

coffin,

Thomas

E.

Cronin

and

San-

ford

D.

Greenberg

declared

in

their

book

of

readings

entitled

The

Presidential

Advisory

System

that

&dquo;the

political

science

discipline

is

now

at

a

juncture

where

...

the

case

method ...

is

no

longer

acceptable....&dquo;

There

are,

indeed,

a

great

many

troubles

and

problems

with

case

studies

in

politics,

public

affairs,

and

public

administration.

Conclusions

are

often

eliminated

for

pedagogical

purposes.

Relating

an

administrative

experience

and

observation

to

some

of

the

theortical

works

in

the

field

has

been

overlooked.

But

even

the

absence

of

conclusions

and

observations

relating

case

studies

to

an

administrative

or

political

theory

are

instructive

to

us

all.

Neither

the

&dquo;old

cases&dquo;

nor

the

&dquo;new

cases&dquo;

of

Golembiewski

and

White

should,

therefore,

be

quickly

judged

to

be

un-

acceptable

to

the

discipline

of

political

science

and

to

the

profession

of

public

administration

simply

because

of

that.

The

thirty-one

cases

in

the

Golembiewski

and

White

volume

are

useful

in

that

they

contain

a

lot

of

insights

which

enrich

our

understanding

of

administrative

realpolitik,

because

they

deal

with

&dquo;responsibility,

responsiveness,

and

representativeness

of

public

administration

and

public

officials.&dquo;

To

put

the

defense

of

case

studies

to

rest,

let

us

remember

what

William

Anderson,

an

old-timer

in

the

discipline,

suggested

during

his

prime:

&dquo;administrators

should

feel

the

same

professional

obligations

that

doctors

do

to

report,

with

clinical

honesty,

their

significant

cases&dquo;

(ASPA

Nezvs ~

Views,

Vol.

24,

No. 1,

January

174) .

Now,

is

that

not

a

worthy

objective?

Western

Illinois

University

A.

B.

VILLANUEVA

Congress

in

Action:

The

Environmental

Education

Act.

By

DENNIS

W.

BREZINA

AND

ALLEN

OVERMYER.

(New

York:

Free

Press,

1974.

Pp.

xx,

210.

$7.95.)

The

Dance

of

Legislation.

By

ERIC

REDMAN.

(New

York:

Simon

and

Schuster,

1973.

Pp.

320.

$7.95.)

The

literature

on

Congress

is

replete

with

case

studies:

of

particular

committees,

of

the

passage

of

particular

pieces

of

legislation,

and

so

on.

Potentially,

of

course,

every

committee,

congressional

personality,

or

bill

might

become

the

subject

of

an

article

or

book.

Having

written

a

dissertation

on

Congress,

kept

reasonably

well

read

on

the

literature,

and

having

worked

for

a

short

while

at

the

Capitol,

I

looked

to

these

books

with

some

interest.

They

were

different

from

most

and

yet

sur-

prisingly

similar

to

each

other.

For

one

thing,

both

were

written

by

staffers.

Red-

man

served

with

Senator

Magnuson,

Brezina

and

Overmyer

with

Senator

Nelson.

All

writers

were

involved

in

the

passage

of

the

legislation

under

study.

The

bills

themselves

were

minor:

the

National

Health

Service

Corps

Act

of

1970,

and

the

Environmental

Education

Act

of

the

same

year.

Here

we

are

given

a

view

of

the

workings

of

HEW

from

two

different

points

of reference.

In

addition

to

being

minor

pieces

of

legislation,

involving

only