Running Scared: Why Politicians spend More Time Campaigning Than Governing.

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If you read even a smattering of commentary on American politics and society written by foreigners - and particularly, for some reason, by the British - you will inevitably run across the conceit of the wide-eyed Martian. "If a Martian were to land in Anytown, USA, in the winter of 1997 ..." a piece might start, and then go on to point out some truth about life in Anytown that its residents have never realized, but that the Martian, with his fresh perspective, finds glaringly obvious and terribly significant. Sometimes, the device works. More often, it makes the author look like a rube - and a condescending one at that.

In his new book on American government, Anthony King, Britain's best-known political scientist, casts himself as the Martian, training his eye on "one big and very important thing that most Americans, because they are so accustomed to it, tend not to notice." But although King manages to avoid embarrassing himself, his sideways glance at our politics isn't especially revealing. In a nutshell, King's argument is that, because of the frequency and high cost of U.S. elections and the relative weakness of the two major parties, our politicians live in a constant state of fear for their careers, which causes them to campaign constantly at the expense of governing thoughtfully (let alone courageously). This in turn has damaging implications for public policy. Now, really: Is there anyone who's thought even half-seriously about American politics who hasn't noticed this?

Not that King has nothing to add to the debate. Not surprisingly, he is at his best, and his most instructive, when comparing our system with the rest of the world. American officials, he shows, are not just highly vulnerable to what he calls, with customary academic flair, "the vicissitudes of electoral politics." By international standards, they're peculiarly vulnerable - more so "than the politicians of any other democratic country." Only in America are the members of the larger house of the national legislature forced to face the voters every two years. Only in America do politicians also face the prospect of being challenged in primaries within their own parties. Only in America are they forced to spend vast sums to get re-elected, and to harvest those sums almost entirely on their own. And only in America do voters make their choices primarily on the basis of the candidate's own performance rather than that of his or her party.

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