BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

Mickey Edwards has always marched to a different drummer. He was a Republican Member of Congress, who didn’t quite fit in with the new breed of neoconservatives that came to dominate the Republican Party in the 1990s. He marched in the same parade as they did. But he sometimes had to do one of those skip steps to keep in sync with his fellow marchers. He instinctively could not conform.

So it comes as no surprise that Edwards, in his latest book, The Parties Versus The People, argues that we rethink the whole concept of party politics and the influence it has over American government. But Edwards is no longer marching to a different drummer. He is a drummer.

“It takes no genius to understand why things are the way they are,” he writes: “we have created a political system that rewards intransigence.

Democracy requires divergence and honors dissent, but what we have today is not mere divergence, and does not deserve the label “dissent”; it’s a nasty battle of dominance, and it’s often the dominance not of an idea or a great principle but a private club that demands undeviating fealty.”

Edwards, who spent much of his time after Congress at Harvard, Princeton and now the Aspen Institute, makes a compelling, if not provocative case that much of the gridlock, intransigence, incivility and dysfunction plaguing government can be traced directly to the domineering, partisan control over both the political process—how we elect our leaders—and the governmental process—how they govern.

And he concludes, the “….the stranglehold of parties on the political process must be ended.”

Edwards talks the talk, joining the ranks of a good many observers of our system who bemoan excessive partisanship and the gridlock that has paralyzed our institutions of government, but Edwards also walks the walk. He proposes thought-provoking, controversial, and intellectually sound solutions that deserve a full public airing in every corner of the public square from local civic organizations, to the media, to non-profit organizations dedicated to improving public policy to the institutions of government themselves.

Some of these ideas are not new (Edwards himself has written about them before), and some won’t register with Americans who are preoccupied with paying the mortgage, educating children or trying to salvage a shaky pension plan. I can’t imagine an average American appreciating the need for members of Congress to spend more time getting to know each other and their families, or changing the procedures for electing the Speaker of the House, but those are reforms could make a profound difference in how the Congress functions, and they deserve the attention of all of us.

Edwards offers up as food for thought other ‘inside baseball’ reforms including the way members are assigned their committees, and how much time members of Congress spend in Washington and in their districts. He proposes changes in how staff are selected.

He also addresses broader issues such as how congressional districts are drawn, how primaries are conducted and the merits of more political parties than just the two that dominate our political lives today. He thinks we should consider, but he does not endorse, making it easier to register to vote and easier to actually get to the polls by making election day a national holiday. He also makes reference to the Australian model of requiring voters to actually vote. And he discusses the use of  more public referenda on specific issues.

We can all find reasons to argue with some or all of  ideas presented in the book.  Edwards can find fault with them. I would have a problem with mandated voting and greater use of referenda. He does not make sufficient distinction between  a Democracy and a Republic, and that is important in the way the American people view change in process and changes in political behavior. I was disappointed, too, that only two out of 180 pages were devoted to the flagrant disregard of the media for their public trust. The media are as culpable as political parties in the destruction of our governmental process.

But what Edwards is urging us to think about, to talk about and to consider changing strikes at the core of what’s wrong with the political process. The book fills a void in our public discourse. It is important and timely.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.