Overview
Washington, D.C.\xa0 Capital of the Free World.\xa0 The most powerful city on Earth.\xa0 No other country, company, or international organization can compare with the reach and wealth of the federal government.\xa0 Policymaking - the art of deciding what programs to support, what laws to pass, or what regulations to write - is at the core of what Washington does, and is what everyone, from the president on down, wants to influence.\xa0 The Founding Fathers expected it to be an inclusive process, and the diversity and number of factors that have grown up around Washington reflects this reality.\xa0 While civics textbooks can teach consumers how a bill becomes law, it is little help in understanding how things really get done in Washington.\xa0 How Washington Works For Dummies\xa0isn't a dry explanation of the American system of government - but a playbook for how Washington really works: who has a seat at the table, how the policymaking process works, and how one survives.\xa0 How Washington Works For Dummies\xa0also takes the reader inside the political process in Washington, discusses changes over the past decade and the present network,\xa0and explain how the parts fit together.\xa0 Readers will get the 4-1-1 on a day in the life of Congress; the workings of the White House; how policy ideas are born; and the inside scoop on miracle workers,\xa0aka lobbyists.
