You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
In this volume, the study of legislatures has traditionally been a central preoccupation of political scientists. Legislatures provide good laboratories for testing theories and methodologies of significance in the discipline and, more broadly, for contributing to an understanding of how representative government works.
American cities provide many of the governmental services that contribute to a greater quality of life for their inhabitants. Local governments are seen as those closest to the people and most responsive to them, more so than state and national governments. Yet typical turnout in municipal elections is below 30 percent of those eligible; few people want to be candidates for low-paying positions in city governments; and seldom are elections competitive--rarely do they offer voters a choice of policy positions among candidates. In The Grassroots of Democracy, Norman Luttbeg provides the results of a comparative study of two rounds of elections in the late 1980s and early 1990s in 118 randomly ...
Organizing Democratic Choice offers a new, invigorating theory of how democracy actually works. It also presents a challenge to democratic pessimists who would have everyone believe that neither political parties nor mass publics are up to the tasks that democracy assigns them.
The 10th edition of this classic text introduces students to political parties and their critical role in representative democracy at the local, state, and national levels. Students will engage in fully up-to-date discussion of changes to presidential campaigns and elections, the ever-evolving world of campaign finance, rapidly changing media environment and much more. In addition, Parties and Elections in America reflects the authors’ continuing emphasis on the foundations of our modern political system by providing historical context throughout the text. The new edition fully incorporates the 2020 and 2022 election cycles as well as the initial run-up to the 2024 election.
During and shortly after the Second World War, six young men-emissaries of the revisionist-Zionist "Irgun" military movement in Palestine revolutionized the American Jewish and Zionist scene. Judith Tydor Baumel provides the complete story of the role the Bergson group played in raising American public consciousness of Jewish and Zionist concerns. After founding a series of pro-Zionist and rescue organizations, they initiated a new form of fundraising that used the media to turn the spotlight on their activities, gaining adherents and supporters from both ends of the political and social spectrum. Long before the protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s, members of this group learned the art...
This hard-hitting and engaging examination of polls and American politics asks an essential question: do polls contribute to the vitality of our democracy or are they undermining the health of our political system? Leading scholars address several key issues such as how various types of polls affect democracy, the meaning attributed to polling data by citizens and the media, the use of polls by presidents, and how political elites respond—or do not respond—to public polls. The contributors assert that while polls tread a fine line between informing and manipulating the public, they remain valuable so long as a robust democracy obliges its political leaders to respond to the expressed will of the people.
Analyzing American Democracy teaches students to think analytically by presenting current political science theories and research in answering the engaging, big questions facing American politics today. It serves as both an introduction to American politics and to the discipline of political science by reflecting the theoretical developments and empirical inquiry conducted by researchers. Every chapter highlights the most current research and discusses related public policy. It demonstrates for students how to think critically and analytically, bringing theoretical insight to contemporary American politics. More than just a comprehensive overview and description of how American politics work...
Pundits have observed that if so many incumbents are returned to Congress to each election by such wide margins, perhaps we should look for ways to increase competitiveness – a centerpiece to the American way of life – through redistricting. Do competitive elections increase voter satisfaction? How does voting for a losing candidate affect voters’ attitudes toward government? The not-so-surprising conclusion is that losing voters are less satisfied with Congress and their Representative, but the implications for the way in which we draw congressional and state legislative districts are less straightforward. Redistricting and Representation argues that competition in general elections is not the sine qua non of healthy democracy, and that it in fact contributes to the low levels of approval of Congress and its members. Brunell makes the case for a radical departure from traditional approaches to redistricting – arguing that we need to "pack" districts with as many like-minded partisans as possible, maximizing the number of winning voters, not losers.
A generation ago, scholars saw interest groups as the single most important element in the American political system. Today, political scientists are more likely to see groups as a marginal influence compared to institutions such as Congress, the presidency, and the judiciary. Frank Baumgartner and Beth Leech show that scholars have veered from one extreme to another not because of changes in the political system, but because of changes in political science. They review hundreds of books and articles about interest groups from the 1940s to today; examine the methodological and conceptual problems that have beset the field; and suggest research strategies to return interest-group studies to a...
The traditional class analysis of politics in industrial societies described a conflict that pitted the well-off business class against the working class in a "democratic class struggle." This book holds that economic development has produced a New Class which rivals the business class in the politics of post-industrial societies.