( CNN ) -- On Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting with S. Ganbaatar , a member of the Mongolian Parliament . When he entered the room , Ganbaatar walked up excitedly to examine a framed document that has hung for years in my offices . The document is a list of commitments to the people , signed by dozens of candidates for public office who promised to vote on a specific policy agenda if they were elected to office . It 's framed alongside a picture of the candidates who signed and campaigned on it . Many of them went on to be elected in a historic vote that tossed out a party that had held power since the 1920s . Ganbaatar was looking at a framed copy of the 1996 `` Contract with the Mongolian Voter . '' That contract was , as the Washington Post reported the next year , `` the most widely distributed document in Mongolian history . '' The Mongolian voters -- with a 91 % turnout -- elected the democratic opposition , which four years earlier had held just six seats . With a program of `` private property rights , a free press and the encouragement of foreign investment , '' they defeated the Communist Party that had ruled since 1921 . Ganbaatar , who was elected to Parliament as an Independent in 2012 and is already one of his country 's most popular politicians , recounted emotionally how the Contract with the Voter was a watershed event in modern Mongolian history . The ideas in that document , he told me , `` gave us our freedom . '' Mongolia 's peaceful , democratic transition of power from the communists to a republican government was one of the few hopeful stories to come out of the former Soviet states in the early years after the Cold War . It was fitting , but only a coincidence , that Ganbaatar visited just a few days before the 20th anniversary of the Contract with America , the inspiration for Mongolia 's Contract with the Voters . On September 27 , 1994 , more than 350 candidates for Congress gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to sign a pledge to the American people , a promise to vote on 10 key reforms if we won a majority in the House of Representatives . That campaign , which I helped organize , earned Republicans control of the House for the first time in 40 years . The Contract was a campaign document . It laid out a common-sense program that was designed to earn the support of the broadest possible range of Americans . Its assortment of policies included everything from changes to how the House did business to items on the budget , welfare and tax policy . But more than any particular proposal , the important thing about the document was its form : It was a contract , a real commitment to reform and accountability and renewal . It sought above all to `` restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives . '' We knew Americans deserved a clear and unambiguous account of what we planned to do , and believed reform required their explicit support -- and that if we broke faith with them , we would n't deserve to hold power . So we invited people to vote us out again if we did n't follow through . But we did follow through -- in an extraordinary first hundred days that kicked off one of the most productive Congresses in American history . In addition to being a campaign document , the Contract was a management document that told us how we would govern . It led directly or indirectly to all of the achievements that would soon follow , including four straight balanced budgets , welfare reform , and the largest capital gains tax cut in American history . In retrospect , it 's clear that the Contract also marked an enduring political realignment . When the Republican House majority was sworn in in 1995 , there was only one Republican in the House ( Bill Emerson from Missouri ) who had ever served under a majority -- and he had done so as a page . Two years later , we became the first Republican majority that had been reelected since 1928 . And since the Contract , Republicans have held the House for 16 of the past 20 years , and should continue to hold it for the foreseeable future . As a detailed commitment to passing specific bills , the Contract was the first document of its kind in American history . It has now been replicated in other countries , like Italy and Mongolia , not because of its policy content , but because it expressed a hope in the heart of every voter -- an aspiration that , in the case of the U.S. -- did n't end with the election of 1994 and certainly did not begin there . The Contract was , quite literally , a renewal of a pre-existing commitment , one that had not been honored . It was the commitment that elected representatives of the people remain accountable to the people . This social contract is essential to self-government , but too often , our leaders abandon it once they join the political class . They forget about who put them there , they contrive to shield themselves from `` tough votes , '' and they stretch further the restraints on their powers under the law . There 's nothing like a visit by a legislator from a place where , for the better part of the last century , lawlessness reigned , to remind you that the contract between the people and their representatives must be constantly renewed and ardently defended .
Newt Gingrich says Mongolia was influenced by Contract with America . He says Republicans signed Contract 20 years ago ; it helped GOP win the House . He says it was detailed commitment to passing specific bills , guided GOP in governing . Gingrich : Too many leaders abandon ideals of Contract once they join the political class .