This fourteenth edition accounts for the 2012 elections and includes discussion of the agenda of the new Congress, White House-Capitol Hill relations, party and committee leadership changes, judicial appointments, and partisan polarization, as well as covering changes to budgeting, campaign finance, lobbyists in legislative policymaking, public attitudes about Congress, reapportionment, rules, and procedural shifts. Always balancing great scholarship with currency, the book features lively case material along with relevant data, charts, exhibits, maps, and photos.