Plot Summary
The Dance of Legislation
Eric Redman
The Dance of Legislation
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1982
Plot Summary
Former Senatorial legislative assistant Eric Redman’s book on the passage of laws in the American legislature, The Dance of Legislation (1973), immediately followed Redman’s two-year-long stint working for the U.S. Senator from Washington, Warren G. Magnuson. The book uses the examples of specific bills—most notably, that which established the National Health Service Corps—to explain the long and complex process of passing legislation in the United States. Redman describes Congress as a highly counterintuitive, nebulous, and procedure-based governmental system. He contends that the hard work of Congressional staff in the background is perhaps more indispensable to the passing of laws than the members of Congress themselves. The book has become known as a candid and accessible primer to the opaque world within the United States’ legislative branch.
Redman begins The Dance of Legislation by tracing the laws that govern American life to their myriad sources. Most laws, he argues, originate in discourse outside of the legal domain. They can emerge out of policy recommendations made in news articles, letters written by constituents, and corporate lobbyists. After a proposal for a law is picked up by a member of Congress or someone else in the legislative hierarchy, the staff chooses whether to accept or reject it. Redman compares this scrupulous selection process to a dance, since it involves an initial moment of mutual interest, followed by a complex, often highly public endeavor to navigate the political stage. The dance involves lots of negotiation, coalition building, and cost-benefit analysis. Moreover, no single member of Congress drafts a bill alone. After the staff has a rough idea of the bill they want to push through, they commission a team of experts in bill drafting. After that, they supply the drafters with an outline of the style and format in which they want the bill to be written, and the drafters go to work.
Redman argues that the even simplest law is difficult to draft. He cites a bill he proposed that mandated cars to stop behind school buses while children disembark. The idea for the bill came from Senator Grinstein, whose son had been struck by a man who drove out of the way of a stopped bus. As rational as the law may have been, it didn’t pass. Another law that Redman worked on, which was intended to minimize earthquake damage, also flopped. Redman argues that emotional, even hyperbolic arguments tend to be the best way of ensuring a bill’s passage. As an example, he refers to a bill advocated by a pediatrician who asserted that electric lawn mowers are highly injurious to people. The pediatrician utilized an X-ray image of the skull of a victim to illustrate his point. The bill passed, and effectively created a new entity called the National Product Safety Commission. Redman documents a handful of other laws, breaking down the reasons that some passed while others failed.
The accuracy of some of Redman’s claims in The Dance of Legislation has been disputed by experts. Some political scientists hold that Redman misrepresents Congress as too virtuous, and neglects to mention the frequency in which senators grandstand to force bills through, with the ultimate aim of seeking a higher office, such as the presidency. Nevertheless, Redman’s book is an illuminating inside look at the workings of the United States Congress, showing that it involves a complex interplay between voters, media, Congressional personnel, and elected officials.
Redman begins The Dance of Legislation by tracing the laws that govern American life to their myriad sources. Most laws, he argues, originate in discourse outside of the legal domain. They can emerge out of policy recommendations made in news articles, letters written by constituents, and corporate lobbyists. After a proposal for a law is picked up by a member of Congress or someone else in the legislative hierarchy, the staff chooses whether to accept or reject it. Redman compares this scrupulous selection process to a dance, since it involves an initial moment of mutual interest, followed by a complex, often highly public endeavor to navigate the political stage. The dance involves lots of negotiation, coalition building, and cost-benefit analysis. Moreover, no single member of Congress drafts a bill alone. After the staff has a rough idea of the bill they want to push through, they commission a team of experts in bill drafting. After that, they supply the drafters with an outline of the style and format in which they want the bill to be written, and the drafters go to work.
Redman argues that the even simplest law is difficult to draft. He cites a bill he proposed that mandated cars to stop behind school buses while children disembark. The idea for the bill came from Senator Grinstein, whose son had been struck by a man who drove out of the way of a stopped bus. As rational as the law may have been, it didn’t pass. Another law that Redman worked on, which was intended to minimize earthquake damage, also flopped. Redman argues that emotional, even hyperbolic arguments tend to be the best way of ensuring a bill’s passage. As an example, he refers to a bill advocated by a pediatrician who asserted that electric lawn mowers are highly injurious to people. The pediatrician utilized an X-ray image of the skull of a victim to illustrate his point. The bill passed, and effectively created a new entity called the National Product Safety Commission. Redman documents a handful of other laws, breaking down the reasons that some passed while others failed.
The accuracy of some of Redman’s claims in The Dance of Legislation has been disputed by experts. Some political scientists hold that Redman misrepresents Congress as too virtuous, and neglects to mention the frequency in which senators grandstand to force bills through, with the ultimate aim of seeking a higher office, such as the presidency. Nevertheless, Redman’s book is an illuminating inside look at the workings of the United States Congress, showing that it involves a complex interplay between voters, media, Congressional personnel, and elected officials.
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