In an era of heightened partisanship and increased polarization, the seventh edition of The Contemporary Congress offers a clear and concise introduction to legislative processes. Perfect as a brief core or supplementary text for undergraduate courses, Loomis and Schiller construct a comprehensive portrait of the U.S. Congress.

1.            The Drama of Representation
2.            Congressional Decentralization in Design and Evolution
3.            The Changing Environment of Congressional Politics       
4.            Congressional Elections: All for One and One for All?      
5.            Parties, Leaders, and Ideology in Congress          
6.            Presidential and Congressional Relations: Boundaries of Power
7.            Policymaking in the House and Senate
8.            The Individual Enterprise
9.            The Competitive Congress: Centrifugal Forces in a Partisan Era  

Burdett Loomis is a professor of political science at the University of Kansas, where he has taught since 1979. He has written extensively on Congress, interest groups, and state politics, including his edited book, The U.S. Senate: From Deliberation to Dysfunction. He served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow with Rep. Paul Simon (D-IL), and founded KU's Washington intern program in 1983 and continues as its director. He is currently working on studies of Rep. Bob Michel and Sen Bob Dole, along with a book on Kansas politics over the past fifty years.
Wendy J. Schiller is professor of political science at Brown University where she has taught since 1994. Before receiving her PhD from the University of Rochester, Schiller served on the staffs of the Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Governor Mario Cuomo. She has written extensively on the United States Senate, including her book Partners and Rivals: Representation in U.S. Senate Delegations, and Electing the Senate: Indirect Democracy before the Seventeenth Amendment. She is currently working on the effects of federalism on gender equality and human security across states. Schiller also provides political commentary on legislative politics to local and national news outlets.