Book Reviews : Congress: The Sapless Branch. By SENATOR JOSEPH S. CLARK. (New York : Harper and Row, Publishers, 1964. Pp. 268. $4.95.)

• Published date: 01 December 1964
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700425
• Date: 01 December 1964
• Author: William J. Crotty
• Subject Matter: Articles

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while China has boldly ’leapt’ into famine, North Vietnam is ’walking’ slowly but
surely to the same goal.&dquo;
Certainly appreciation ought to be tendered Hoang Chi for now enabling us
more
clearly to understand, for example, Vietnamese involvement in current Laotian
developments as the combined product of ideological, military, and &dquo;rice&dquo; imperial-
ism. But this work, for the same reason, is also a disturbing commentary on the state
of high quality American research on post-1945 developments especially in the Indo-
chinese theater of Southeast Asia.
DONALD DOUGLAS DALGLEISH
Arizona State University
Congress: The Sapless Branch. By SENATOR JOSEPH S. CLARK. (New York : Harper
and Row, Publishers, 1964. Pp. 268. $4.95.)
Edwardian architecture, popular on Capitol Hill, conveniently symbolizes an
equally out-dated legislative psychology. The extent to which this is true and what
can be done to rectify the situation is outlined in this book.
Senator Clark believes that the greatest threat to democratic government is the
malfunctioning of legislative bodies. The problem is particularly acute at the na-
tional level. There are two reasons for this. The first is mechanical. Congress
operates under what are essentially nineteenth-century rules, traditions, and elec-
tion practices. The decentralized nature of the institution, the semi-organized con-
fusion surrounding policy deliberations, the disproportionate influence exercised by
individuals from uncontested constituencies, and the parochial ties and orientations
of the members, are all remnants of a less demanding, less complex age, long passed.
A misconception of its role constitutes the second major problem of the Con-
gress. It believes itself the rival in power and prestige of the President. Correspond-
ingly, any attempt to expand the influence of the presidency is viewed as an attack
on the prerogatives of the Congress. The fact that their role as the members perceive
it does not equate with...