Book review: ‘The Spirit of Compromise’ by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson

The Spirit of Compromise Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It By Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson Princeton University Press. 288 pp. $24.95 Reviewed by Alexander Heffner To the voter, and presumably all elected officials, American politics appears as acrimonious as ever. The executive and legislative branches are totally uncompromising, much as with the continuing clash of two-party partisanship. Take the House of Representative’s unanimous vote March 28 against a budget proposal — brought to the floor by a Republican representative — supposedly based on President Obama’s 2013 proposal. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the conservative Budget Committee chairman, counterpunched with his own proposal.