Government by the People, Brief Edition - Softcover

Burns, James MacGregor; Peltason, J. W.; Cronin, Thomas E.; Magleby, David B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130116351 ISBN 13: 9780130116352

Publisher: Pearson, 1999

Synopsis

For first year/sophomore-level courses in American Government.

The brief version of the bestseller in the field for many years and the leader in creating the Politically Active Classroom (PAC), Government By the People brings students the keen insights of four prize-winning political scientists. Acclaimed for its superb writing style, pedagogical support, and comprehensive and balanced treatment of the American political system, the text has been thoroughly revised, redesigned, and updated to address the diverse and changing nature of American politics and to meet the needs of American Government classes today. A complete multimedia package: Companion Website, free CD-ROM, WebCT―rounds out the learning package. Get into the PAC!

About this title

About the Author:

James MacGregor Burns is a Senior Scholar at the Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, and Woodrow Wilson Professor Emeritus of Government at Williams College. He has written numerous books, including The Power to Lead (1984), The Vineyard of Liberty (1982), Leadership (1979), Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970), The Deadlock of Democracy: Four-Party Politics in America (1963), and Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956). With his son, Stewart Burns, he wrote A People's Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America (1991); with Georgia Sorenson, Dead Center. Clinton, Gore, and the Perils of Moderation (2000); and with Susan Dunn, The Three Roosevelts (2001). Burns is a past president of the American Political Science Association and winner of numerous prizes, including a Pulitzer Prize in History.

J.W. Peltason is a leading scholar on the judicial process and public law. He is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. As past president of the American Council on Education, Peltason has represented higher education before Congress and state legislatures. His writings include Federal Courts in the Political Process (1955), Fifty-Eight Lonely Men: Southern Federal Judges and School Desegration (1961), and with Sue Davis, Understanding the Constitution (2000). Among his awards are the James Madison Medal from Princeton University, the Irvine Medal from the University of California, Irvine, and the American Political Science Association's Charles E. Merriam Award.

Thomas E. Cronin is a leading student of the American presidency, leadership, and policy-making processes. He teaches at and serves as president of Whitman College. He was a White House Fellow and a White House aide and has served as president of the Western Political Science Association. His writings include The State of the Presidency (1980), U.S. v. Crime in the Streets (1981), Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall (1989), Colorado Politics and Government (1993), and The Paradoxes of the American Presidency (1998). Cronin is a past recipient of the American Political Science Association's Charles E. Merriam Award.

David B. Magleby is nationally recognized for his expertise on direct democracy, voting behavior, and campaign finance. He is Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University and has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Virginia. His writings include Direct Legislation (1984), The Money Chase: Congressional Campaign Finance Reform (1990), Myth of the Independent Voter (1992), and editor of Outside Money: Soft Money and Issue Advocacy in the 1998 Congressional Elections (2000). He was president of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society, and has received numerous teaching awards. In 1996 he was a Fulbright Scholar at Nuffield College, Oxford University.

David M. O'Brien is the Leone Reaves and George W Spicer Professor at the University of Virginia. He was a Judicial Fellow and Research Associate at the Supreme Court of the United States, a Fulbright Lecturer at Oxford University, held the Fulbright Chair for Senior Scholars at the University of Bologna, and a Fulbright Researcher in Japan, as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation. Among his publications are Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, 5th ed., (2000); a two volume casebook, Constitutional Law and Politics, 4th ed., (2000); an annual Supreme Court Watch; and To Dream of Dreams: Religious Freedom in Postwar Japan (1996). He received the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for contributing to the public's understanding of the law.

From the Back Cover:

Features:

• History Makers. Reinforcing the importance of being an active participant in–and contributor to–political change, this inspirational feature profiles influential political figures, some contemporary, some historical.   History Makers features active people representing divergent parties, ideologies, and agendas, but all sharing the common trait of engagement in the political process, from America's most important public servants to its ordinary, and sometimes, extraordinary, citizens, including FDR, LBJ, Martin Luther King, Jr., William Rehnquist, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 

• The Changing Face of U.S. Politics. Exemplifying the ever-increasing level of diversity in the American political landscape, including how race and gender are changing the way the American government works, these unique boxes reflect the concerns and experiences of ethnic and minority groups in American politics..

• How Other Nations Govern.  These data-rich boxes give students insight into foreign political structures and processes by looking at a diverse group of countries, including Britain, France, Japan, India, China, and Mexico, and showing how their approaches to government are similar to and different from those of the United States.

• NEW! MyPoliSciLab, also available in Blackboard and WebCT platforms.

 

New to this Edition:

• A Framework of Learning Pedagogy.   A Master List of Objectives appears in the front of the book, providing an inventory of the concepts students must master to complete the course.  These Objectives reappear at the beginning of each chapter―as part of the opening spread―highlighting learning goals, while Individual Objectives and key coverage is called out in the text margins.  A Summary and Self-test at the end of each chapter provides students with a final check of their understanding.  Learning Objectives were compiled through nationwide surveys of instructors on their course goals. 
• You Will Decide.  Being part of a government by the people requires consideration of, and decisions on, differing points of view.  This feature explores in-the-news questions like the impact of third-party candidates, the advantages and disadvantages of a national presidential primary, and the need for restrictions on civil liberties during the war on terror and then asks students to weigh options for resolving the issue.
• Generation Next.  This engaging feature presents information about Generation Next―America’s current crop of16-25 year old’s―drawn from Pew research and other sources showing this cohort’s issues, values, and challenges as they relate to specific research questions such as partisan differences, the rise of small campaign donors, search and seizure in the age of terrorism, and levels of patriotism.  Comparisons with older voters and demographic breakdowns help students understand where they fit and why government matters to them.  Each box concludes with several critical thinking questions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0130116351
• ISBN 13: 9780130116352
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 478