ABSTRACT
The Congress of the United States is, without doubt, the most powerful representative assembly in the world today. This is not merely to reiterate the fact of the power and wealth of the United States – it is also recognition of the fact that, as a legislature, Congress continues to exercise a degree of independent decision-making power far greater than that retained by the other legislatures of the Western democracies. It is true that, like all legislative bodies in the complex modern world, its power has declined relative to that of the so-called ‘executive branch’ of government. Increasingly, it is the president and his administration that initiate policy and provide leadership in legislative affairs, but the Congress makes effective decisions upon domestic and foreign policy, upon the role of government in society, and the way in which government activities will be financed. The president can initiate policy, and he can urge it upon Congress with all the resources at his command, but he cannot determine what legislation shall pass, when it will be passed, or in exactly what form it will pass. Once legislation has been introduced into the British House of Commons by the government it is virtually certain that it will be passed, but one can only predict what might happen to legislation in Congress, and such predictions, however well-informed, may well turn out to be wrong.
