If Barone is correct in his assessment, we're entering an age in which politics will become much less important in the lives of average Americans. The public may be doing more than rejecting the New Deal: It may be repudiating central planning and the micromanagement of American life first championed by the Progressives in the early decades of this century. Political elites across the country might need to update their résumés.
The Almanac offers more information than its counterpart--profiles of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, the likely Republican contenders as of April 1995 (Pete Wilson is included while Steve Forbes isn't), and every governor. Barone discusses how each state has voted in recent presidential elections and what those voting habits say about the people who live there. Politics in America, however, never ventures so far from its Capitol Hill orientation and its matter-of-fact approach.
Barone also adds an extra touch that makes the Almanac a more useful publication for observers of the 104th Congress than its rival publication. The House Republicans' Contract With America completely consumed the first three months of the 104th Congress and dominated Washington politics for much of 1995; its decentralist message also fit well with the Tocquevillian America Barone sees emerging. In each House member's profile, the Almanac includes the vote tallies of 15 key legislative components in the contract. By contrast, Politics in America lists only one vote taken in 1995--on the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
Even the approaches the books use to profile senators and representatives differ greatly in style and substance. Both books include a geographical and political summary of each district and personal profiles of the elected officials and their recent challengers. In The Almanac of American Politics, this information is combined into a single essay for each district. Politics in America instead divides its data into compartments: A profile of the district; for first-termers, a discussion of their "path to Washington"; and for incumbents, separate sections on the politicians' actions "in Washington" and "at home." Divvying up each congressional district in this manner only enhances the rather bland, "just-the-facts-ma'am" rap Politics in America uses in describing the people who inhabit Congress.
Let's do a more direct comparison. At random I opened Politics in America and landed in the fourth district of Iowa, where freshman Republican Greg Ganske unseated 36-year veteran Neal Smith in 1994. The book says Ganske "has made spending reduction one of his top priorities, favoring a cost-benefit review of all government programs. One of his first targets is pork barrel projects.
"To emphasize his point, Ganske once wrestled a greased pig during a campaign appearance at a local rodeo. Ganske also plans to push for a crime bill that focuses on apprehension and punishment instead of 'social welfare' programs aimed at crime prevention." Nice bit of color, but otherwise fairly pedestrian prose.
By contrast, Barone offers more perspective and more detail, letting us know that Ganske's district includes the site of Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County. Voter loyalties in this agricultural district are divided between liberal Des Moines, where corn and hog farmers "hanker...for generous farm subsidies," and the beef-cattle farmers of Council Bluffs, where the residents rely less on subsidies and "the federal government is seen as an officious intermeddler....Des Moines has more votes...but in 1994 the balance of opinion was tilted more to the Council Bluffs side." With Barone's engaging style, you might actually pick up the Almanac if you aren't doing research.
If the Almanac has a flaw, it's in Barone's relentless fairness to everyone in Congress, even those whom in private he may regard as charlatans or scum. The book is, after all, supposed to be a reference work rather than a broadside. When Barone writes his memoirs, we may learn what he really thinks about some of these characters.
For hard-core political junkies and dedicated propeller-heads, Politics in America does offer something the Almanac doesn't: the contents of the book on CD-ROM. If I were a full-time Capitol Hill reporter, or the producer of a Washington-based public-affairs radio or television program, the ability to get information on any congressional district by hitting a few keystrokes on my computer would be valuable indeed. More casual political observers, however, might consider a political encyclopedia's contents more important than its format.
Picking up The Almanac of American Politics 1996 is almost as satisfying as visiting a winery or microbrewery: Every sample of a different beverage offers a pleasant surprise--and with the Almanac you can drive safely after your stay. Reading Politics in America, by contrast, is more like taking a dose of vitamins: It's useful, even nourishing, not unpleasant, but not exactly fun. Now if National Journal would only spring for a CD-ROM version of the Almanac after this year's elections, you'd have no reason to choose any other political encyclopedia.
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