Writing
Selected Published Articles & Updates
How to Avoid a Presidential Succession Nightmare
The House speaker crisis calls attention to the potential for far worse political instability. By Jean Parvin Bordewich and Roy E. Brownell II Originally published on October 27, 2023 in The Wall Street Journal The ousting of Kevin McCarthy as speaker threw the House...
Book Review: Nancy Pelosi’s Big Stick by John A. Lawrence
Nancy Pelosi’s Big Stick An insider account of the Californian’s first four years as House speaker reveals how she prodded Washington’s more timid male leaders to do big things. Originally published on August 27, 2023 in Washington MonthlyIn September 2008, House...
Pragmatic problem solvers can find fertile ground in today’s post-pandemic Congress
The 118th Congress could be more effective than the productive 117th Read the full article, originally published on June 6, 2023, in Roll Call
Book Review: War By Other Means by Daniel Akst
War By Other Means: The Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance Originally published on June 1, 2023 in Friends Journal Quakers have embraced the peace testimony since their founding in the seventeenth century. Less well known is the fact...
The Disorder of Succession
Should the president and vice president both die, you’d think we’d have a well-considered plan to reconstitute the government. In fact, we don’t. Originally published on April 4, 2023 in Washington Monthly Most of us who follow government know what the line of...
Strengthening U.S. democracy: Q&A with Jean Bordewich
Originally published on May 4, 2022, by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Jean Parvin Bordewich is a program officer in the U.S. Democracy Program at the Hewlett Foundation, overseeing grantmaking for the National Governing Institutions strategy. Earlier she...
When Members of Congress Really Fought
Originally published January 12, 2020, at WashingtonMonthly.com The House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings displayed starkly how different Democrats and Republicans have become. Throughout the hearings, Democratic committee chairman Adam Schiff maintained...
How to name a Senate space for John McCain
Originally published on September 11, 2018, at TheHill.com Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) many admirers, understandably enough, are calling for his name to replace that of the once-formidable Richard Russell on the oldest Senate office building, or somewhere else on...
Make the Senate filibuster stronger, not weaker
Originally published on May 9, 2019, at TheHill.com The U.S. Senate is moving with accelerating speed down a slippery slope of rules changes, each time thinking the next tweak to the filibuster will stop the slide. But after three detonations of the “nuclear option”...
Congress, help thyself
Originally published on November 24, 2020, at Hewlett.org The COVID pandemic helped accelerate efforts to modernize Congress. U.S. Democracy Program Officer Jean Bordewich weighs in on the changes and what’s in store for the future. This is part of Think Again, a...