Mission and Themes of the Center on Congress

The Center on Congress at Indiana University was established in January 1999. It developed out of Lee Hamilton's recognition during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives of the need to improve broad public understanding of Congress — its role in our large and remarkably diverse country, its strengths and its weaknesses, its impact on the lives of ordinary people everyday.

During the course of literally thousands of public meetings, talks at local schools, and discussions with individuals, Congressman Hamilton became increasingly convinced that the public's understanding of Congress was not at all commensurate to the importance it plays in our country and was reaching alarmingly low level, with too few people understanding the important role that Congress plays in our country.

Surveys have shown for many years that large numbers of Americans say the work of Congress has no relevance to their lives, that many of our top high school students cannot list basic functions of government, and that people say they have become so disillusioned with the political system that they have simply given up on it. In a representative democracy such as ours, that is a cause for concern.

Dr. Myles Brand, President of Indiana University in 1999, shared Congressman Hamilton's view that Congress should be better-explained to the American people. Together, they developed The Center on Congress.
 

Mission

The central mission of The Center on Congress is to help improve the public's understanding of Congress and to improve civic engagement, especially among our young people, as a way to strengthen our basic institutions of government.

The Center is non-partisan and its goal is purely educational — to explain the work and role of Congress. Information on Congress is presented in a variety of ways, including newspaper op-eds, radio commentaries, website articles and brochures, teaching materials, conferences, books, television spots, and videos and interactive learning programs for students. (See "Learn About Congress" section.)

 

Approach

The Center on Congress is not a think tank. It does not address public policy issues or produce detailed, technical position papers. Its work is not aimed at Members of Congress, the Washington press corps, or political scientists. Instead, its special niche is explaining Congress to the average citizen.

Areas covered by the Center include public perceptions of Congress, the role of Congress in our large, diverse country, the main public criticisms of Congress, and the impact of Congress on people's everyday lives.

 

Conclusion

The Center encourages a balanced, realistic view of Congress: one that see its flaws but still recognizes its central role in our system of government; one that leads to a desire to make things better rather than to cynicism. At the core of the Center's work is the belief that our nation's great experiment of representative democracy has served us well for more than two hundred years, but it fundamentally rests on an informed electorate that understands our system of government and participates in our civic life.