Always a classic, Dodd and Oppenheimer's Congress Reconsidered is the recognized source for in-depth, cutting-edge scholarship on Congress geared to undergraduates. Thoroughly updated for the 112th Congress.
This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the major theoretical approaches to the study of American politics. Written by leading scholars in the field, the book's essays focus particularly on the contributions that competing macro- and microanalytic approaches make to our understanding of political change in America.The essays include systematic overviews of the patterns of constancy and change that characterize American political history as well as comparative discussions of theoretical traditions in the study of American political change. The volume concludes with four provocative essays proposing new and integrated interpretations of American politics.This is a path-breaking book that all scholars concerned with American politics will want to read and that all serious students of American politics will need to study. The Dynamics of American Politics is appropriate for graduate core seminars on American politics, undergraduate capstone courses on American politics, courses on political theory and approaches to political analysis, and rigorous lower-division courses on American politics.
A remarkable place where geography has defined history, Wallula Gap is that narrowing of the mighty Columbia River halfway between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. In this book, Bob Carson and his colleagues tell a fascinating story ¿ of a striking land where the forces of geology worked on a spectacular scale, of a desert oasis where Native Americans, explorers, fur traders, promoters and entrepreneurs, and modern-day agriculturalists and wind farmers have all made their mark. Through the prism of Wallula, the historic gateway to the Columbia Plateau, readers learn much about the region.
For over a half century, Anthony Downs’s spatial model of ideologically structured party competition, articulated in An Economic Theory of Democracy, has been deeply embedded in the logic of American political science. An explicit assumption of this theory is that in a system of two-party competition, centrist politics would emerge as parties compete for the so-called median voter. But the highly polarized American politics in the early 21stcentury challenges the broad logic of Downsian two-party democracy. In fact, Downs made no attempt to apply his thinking to the specific context of an American-style two-party democracy characterized by separation of powers, federalism, and a bicameral Congress. In this groundbreaking new work, Lawrence Dodd reassesses the ways in which Downs’s ideas apply to the American context. He draws on Downs’s core argument about ideology-based party competition to develop a theory of cyclical swings between polarized and depolarized party system politics. With these cyclical swings in party system polarization come swings between a more centralized party government structure in Congress and a decentralized committee government structure. The first is focused on the pursuit of new purposes and programs for government; the second is focused on overseeing and enhancing the core functions and existing programs of government. These swings in party system polarization, organizational governance, and policymaking orientation enable Congress to contribute in critical ways to the nation’s capacity to adapt effectively to societal change. Dodd’s arguments about the fundamental relationship between voters, government, and policy outputs represents a new paradigm for the study of American politics in general and Congress in particular.
An eye-opening analysis of the Federal Reserve's massive and unwarranted power in American life and how it favors the financial sector over everyone else. The Federal Reserve, created more than a century ago, is the most powerful central bank in the world. The Fed's power, which derives from its ability to alter the money supply and move interest rates, weighs heavily not only on the US economy, but on the world economy as well. Lawrence R. Jacobs and Desmond King's Fed Power is the first sustained synthesis of the Fed's political role--especially the way in which it uses its power to benefit some interest groups and not others--since the 2008 financial crisis. In this fully updated and revised second edition, Fed Power addresses new developments during Trump's presidency--particularly the Fed's massive and unprecedented injection of liquidity into the US economy following the COVID epidemic-and offers fresh insights on the Fed's outsized role in picking winners and losers in the American economy. King and Jacobs conclude with bold proposals to reform America's financial management to prevent future crises and to restore democratic accountability. A powerful critique of how the Federal Reserve governs the American economy, Fed Power will be essential reading for anyone interested in the role that the Fed's policies have played in increasing economic and racial inequality across both the Obama and Trump presidencies and the new directions pursued by the Biden administration and progressive activists.
The people who run our government are affected by money just like the rest of us. Over the years, many of these officials have worried about meeting mortgage payments, holding off creditors, and avoiding bankruptcy. Others made fortunes by devoting their time to supervising their business interests. Either way, these distractions affected the lives of everyday citizens--from the price of shirts to the decisions for war or peace. In school, students are taught about governmental principles underlying political controversies, but instructors seldom talk about money that presidents and cabinet members stood to gain or lose, depending on who prevailed in a political dispute. This book will help fill the gaps in that knowledge. To ignore the business activities of our leaders is to ignore most of their adult lives. Having such awareness allows voters to see motivations in government decisions that may otherwise be obscure. Concentrating on presidents and cabinet members, from the birth of the U.S. through the Carter administration, this book tells how they and their associates gained and lost wealth, and how this affected their nation's well-being.
Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied, and governmental authority had collapsed. As he crossed the Congo River in an almost empty ferry boat, all he could see were lines of people trying to travel the other way -- out of the Congo. Within his first two weeks he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette, Congo style, with him. During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered and Devlin was widely thought to have been entrusted with (he was) and to have carried out (he didn't) the assassination. Then he saved the life of Joseph Desire Mobutu, who carried out the military coup that presaged his own rise to political power. Devlin found himself at the heart of Africa, fighting for the future of perhaps the most strategically influential country on the continent, its borders shared with eight other nations. He met every significant political figure, from presidents to mercenaries, as he took the Cold War to one of the world's hottest zones. This is a classic political memoir from a master spy who lived in wildly dramatic times.
DEATH, AMERICAN STYLE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF DYING IN AMERICA is the first comprehensive cultural history to explore America’s uneasy relationship with death over the past century.
From 1888 to 1915 Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London were uniquely placed to witness and record the imperial struggle for the South Pacific. Engaging the major European colonial empires and the USA, the struggle questioned ideas of liberty, racial identity and class like few other arenas of the time. Exploring a unique moment in South Pacific and Western history through the work of Stevenson and London, this study assesses the impact of their national identities on works like The Amateur Emigrant and Adventure; discusses their attitudes towards colonialism, race and class; shows how they negotiated different cultures and peoples in their writing and considers where both writers are placed in the Western tradition of writing about the Pacific. By contextualizing Stevenson's and London's South Pacific work, this study reveals two critical voices of late nineteenth-century and early 20th-century colonialism that deserve to stand beside their contemporary Joseph Conrad in shaping contemporary attitudes towards imperialism, race, and class.
The best and first available guide to the members of the newly elected Congress is "Politics in America". Readers will discover "who's who" on Capitol Hill, thanks to profiles of the newly elected as well as incumbents. Key facts are highlighted--biographical data, committee assignments, election results, votes on key issues, and more. The CD-ROM includes all member information, photos, and maps from the book. 600 photos. 75 illustrations.
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