Book review: what is hindering top-quality decision making in American politics?

In The Spirit of Compromise, political thinkers Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson show that campaigning for political office calls for a mindset that blocks compromise - standing tenaciously on principle to mobilize voters and mistrusting opponents in order to defeat them. But good government calls for an opposite cluster of attitudes and arguments. Calling for greater cooperation in contemporary politics, this book will interest all who care about whether their government leaders can work together, finds Paul Brighton. The Spirit of Compromise. Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. Princeton University Press. April 2012.