The high priests of American politics

Description:

Using a multidisciplinary approach, Mark C. Miller draws in large part on interviews he conducted with members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Ohio legislature, and the Massachusetts legislature. From this rich data, he shows how American lawyers are socialized into a common legal ideology, which in turn shapes the behavior of individual lawyer-politicians, legislative committees dominated by lawyers, and the entire legislative institutions of government. Miller goes on to explore the various roles lawyers play in the development of public policy. He identifies some intriguing differences in attitude between lawyer and nonlawyer legislators toward the courts and then establishes a typology of differences among lawyer-politicians themselves, showing how these different "types" affect the legislative process at both the committee and the macro-institutional levels. In the final chapter, he examines the ways in which the lawyerly approach to decision making influences the substantive policy choices of Congress and shapes its internal political culture. The ultimate effect of lawyer-dominated legislatures, Miller concludes, is a government that is preoccupied with incremental, rights-oriented procedural solutions - and not with sweeping changes in the substance of public policy.

subjects: Lawyers in politics,  Legislators,  Lawyers,  Political activity,  Legislators, united states

Places: United States