Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the US Senate, Gregory J. Wawro and Eric Schickler, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. xx, 326.

The US Senate presents observers with a paradox. It is a strong and influential legislative chamber, whose strength and influence derive in great part from unique rules and norms that not only allow but genuinely celebrate obstructionism, and techniques that encourage the frustration of the democratic majority by unrestricted parliamentary gamesmanship. The filibuster—a tactic whose purpose is to prevent the accomplishment of legislative business—is a fundamental, defining characteristic of both Senate procedure and the Senate's institutional self-image. How does the Senate—with its jealously guarded traditions of unlimited debate, universal recognition, and disregard for germaneness—ever manage to get anything done?