The Spirit of Compromise

Distinguished political scientists Gutmann (president & Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Univ. of Pennsylvania) and Thompson (Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy, Harvard Univ.) are past coauthors (e.g., Why Deliberative Democracy?). Their latest effort is complementary to their previous works, an assessment from a new angle of how political outcomes are reached in our democracy. This book's backdrop is one of political dysfunction such as that seen in the partisan health care legislation of 2010 and the 2011 struggle to raise the federal debt ceiling. The authors show throughout the book how the "uncompromising mindsets" of participants from both parties contributed to the difficulties of these episodes, with intrusions of the "permanent campaign" and instances of "mutual mistrust" all too evident. In contrast, they advocate the necessity and value of compromise and present past examples of how politicians such as Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch were able to combine partisan credentials with a "compromising mindset" to achieve bipartisan successes.