Jesse Crosson, Asst. Professor, Purdue University – Reforming Congress

January 3, 2023   Matthew Chervenak

  • Congressional Reform
  • Video
  • Timestamps
  • 00:20 Background
  • 03:33 Lets start off with the concept of incentives, how does it change the game for incentives, whether you have a huge majority at 2/3rds vs you’re on the edge of a 51/49 kind of scenario?
  • 9:39 Its easy to slow things down in our system because that’s how things were designed.
  • 9:49 Do you think that today the parties overestimate their changes in the next election? Is that a common affliction?
  • 11:23 I can see how that can play out in the House, what about the Senate side?
  • 13:15 Does the Senate calculation change at all because of the Filibuster, and the threshold to get legislation through, does that change the game?
  • 16:59 Let’s move onto the notion of private actors in organizations, I think the second point that you mentioned, how does this unstable majorities concept impact these private actors or these influencers of policy?
  • 20:57 Is it because the institutions themselves need to align themselves with the parties?
  • 28:52 One of the factors here is your third area, which is Congress’ ability to invest in itself as an institution, because if Congress had enough money to invest in itself, it might have to fund outside think tanks, it would use its own think tanks. Can you talk about how unstable majorities factor into Congress’ inability to get its own house in order?
  • 34:18 Wouldn’t another strategy be, instead to weaken the notion of party? Or reduce the power of parties within the context of the government? Is the answer to weaken or destroy parties?
  • 44:00 I know you have some ideas on reform and how it has worked in the pat, can you talk a little bit about those and what you have found there? Common Questions
  • 48:59 What do you think congressional representation should mean?
  • 52:56 Who does Congress represent?
  • 57:31 What about the future interests that you don’t know?
  • 59:58 How would your ideal Congress allocate its time?
  • 1:01:42 How should debate, deliberation or dialogue occur in Congress?
  • 1:05:29 What fundamental Institutional improvement should Congress make within 50 years?
  • 1:10:04 Which book or article best shaped your thinking with respect to Congressional Reform?
  • 1:11:21 My last question is in respect to the long run, what are you working on now and what do you have coming for the future?