by Randy Pinion

Created on: December 16, 2006   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

America's Congress is a body caught in a sort of struggle. At one extreme end of this conflict, a small group of powerful Senators and Representatives desperately wish to wield ultimate power over the entire Congressional system, while at the other, every delegate yearns for individual power and decision-making abilities. At base, the conflict is over whether Congress should be a centralized or decentralized body of government.

What precisely does this mean, however? Were Congress extremely centralized, the party leadership would come into play a great deal more heavily and the whole system would begin to resemble a parliament. A few key persons would control everything from debate length to committee chairmen and even what topics would even be allowed to take the floor. At various points during America's history, each of these rights has been given to and taken from single or small groups of individuals in the House of Representatives, with mixed results. This way of doing things makes for a more efficient decision-making machine, with the leaders simply pushing forward their favored ideas, placing loyal friends into committees, and ignoring the ideas of their political enemies whenever possible. Tactics like filibuster, the talking-to-death of any undesirable movement, would falter and die away. On the flipside, this does take away Congress's chief unique attribute the importance of each member.

Decentralization is the opposite extreme in which that individuality comes into play. Here, no one man or group of men stands above the others making all the important decisions. Rather, the Congress as a whole decides all of these. Committees are elected by other committees, debate length is controlled by popular vote rather than an individual's whim, and nearly anything can take the floor, with a committee's approval. Nearly every man can be the head of something, but none can become so powerful in his position as to be able to negate the importance of another. However, this does open the door to delaying tactics and makes things move a great deal slower all around at base, there simply is more room for very open and wide-ranging debate due to the number of opinions on the floor, and if history has proven anything about Congress, it is that those opinions are very often at odds and very diverse.

History does show a great deal about this epic struggle, for a look back at the House shows a place of constant power fluctuation between a few and the many. Perhaps we will never find the perfect balance, but it is that quest for it that seems to make the whole system work a constant search for something better.

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