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Updated in a new 4th edition, America's Democratic Republic is a brief, affordable book in an accessible trade-like format that explores the clash between the democratic aspirations of the American people and the republican foundations of our Constitution.
Written with a lively, narrative style, this text traces the storyline of American government and focuses on the long standing and inescapable tension between the country’s 18th Century republican Constitutional foundations and the democratic aspirations of the American people.
Updated throughout!
-Includes results of the historic 2008 presidential and congressional elections, as well as important 2008 Supreme Court decisions.
-New scholarship woven throughout the book offers illuminating insight into modern policies, practices, and institutions. In Chapter 9 (Political Parties), for example, the authors identify a seventh party era, which they call “the parties at war” to describe the extreme partisanship that has defined American politics since the mid-1990s. Elsewhere, the authors point to new data and trends indicating increased inequality in recent years.
-Updated figures throughout provide current data
Preface | p. x |
About the authors | p. xvii |
Democratic Aspirations, Republican Constitutional Foundations | p. 1 |
The American Democratic Republic | p. 3 |
Eighteenth-Century Republicanism | p. 6 |
Democracy | p. 9 |
The American Democratic Republic | p. 17 |
Key Terms | p. 19 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 20 |
Internet Sources | p. 20 |
The Constitution | p. 21 |
The American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence | p. 23 |
The Articles of Confederation: The First Constitution | p. 25 |
The Democratic Challenge | p. 27 |
The Constitutional Convention | p. 29 |
What the Framers Created | p. 33 |
The Struggle to Ratify the Constitution | p. 38 |
The Changing Constitution and the American Democratic Republic | p. 40 |
Key Terms | p. 42 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 43 |
Internet Sources | p. 43 |
Federalism: States and Nation | p. 44 |
Federalism as a System of Government | p. 47 |
Federalism in the Constitution | p. 50 |
The Evolution of American Federalism | p. 54 |
Fiscal Federalism | p. 64 |
U.S. Federalism: Pro and Con | p. 68 |
Federalism and the Democratic Republic | p. 70 |
Key Terms | p. 72 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 72 |
Internet Sources | p. 72 |
Civil Liberties | p. 74 |
Civil Liberties in the Constitution | p. 76 |
Rights and Liberties in the Nineteenth Century | p. 79 |
Nationalization of the Bill of Rights | p. 81 |
Freedom of Speech | p. 84 |
Freedom of the Press | p. 88 |
Religious Freedom | p. 91 |
Privacy | p. 95 |
Rights of Those Accused of a Crime | p. 98 |
Civil Liberties and Terrorism | p. 104 |
Civil Liberties and the Democratic Republic | p. 107 |
Key Terms | p. 108 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 108 |
Internet Sources | p. 109 |
Civil Rights | p. 110 |
Civill Rights Before the Twentieth Century | p. 113 |
The Contemporary status of Civil Rights for Racial Minorities | p. 118 |
The Contemporary Status of Civil Rights for Women | p. 128 |
Broadening the Civil Rights Umbrella | p. 132 |
Civil Rights in the Democratic Republic | p. 136 |
Key Terms | p. 138 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 138 |
Internet Sources | p. 139 |
Political Institutions | p. 141 |
Public Opinion | p. 143 |
Democracy and Public Opinion | p. 146 |
Finding Out What People Think | p. 147 |
Political Socialization: Learning Political Beliefs and Attitudes | p. 151 |
How and Why People's Political Attitudes Differ | p. 153 |
The Contours of American Public Opinion: Are the People Fit to Rule? | p. 163 |
Does Public Opinion Determine What Government Does? | p. 173 |
Public Opinion and the Democratic Republic | p. 176 |
Key Terms | p. 177 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 177 |
Internet Sources | p. 178 |
The News Media | p. 179 |
Roles of the News Media in a Democracy | p. 182 |
Mainstream and Nonmainstream News Media | p. 183 |
How the Mainstream News Media Work | p. 190 |
Effects of the News Media on Politics | p. 205 |
Democratic and Republican Encounters | p. 213 |
Key Terms | p. 214 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 214 |
Internet Sources | p. 215 |
Interest Groups | p. 216 |
Interest Groups in a Democratic Society: Contrasting Views | p. 220 |
The Interest Group Universe | p. 223 |
Why There Are So Many Interest Groups | p. 228 |
What Interest Groups Do | p. 230 |
Interest Groups and Inequality in American Politics | p. 236 |
Curing the Mischief of Factions | p. 242 |
Interest Groups and the Democratic Republic | p. 243 |
Key Terms | p. 245 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 245 |
Internet Sources | p. 246 |
Political Parties | p. 247 |
The Role of Political Parties in a Democratic Republic | p. 251 |
The American Two-Party System | p. 253 |
The Democratic and Republican Parties | p. 260 |
The Parties in Government and in the Electorate | p. 271 |
Political Parties and the Democratic Republic | p. 274 |
Key Terms | p. 275 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 275 |
Internet Sources | p. 276 |
Elections and citizen Participation | p. 277 |
The Place of Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories | p. 281 |
Voting in the United States | p. 285 |
Who Votes? | p. 291 |
Campaigning for Office | p. 295 |
Election Outcomes | p. 312 |
Elections and Participation in the Democratic Republic | p. 317 |
Key Terms | p. 318 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 319 |
Internet Sources | p. 319 |
Government Institutions | p. 321 |
Congress | p. 323 |
The Eighteenth-Century Republican Constitutional Foundations of Congress | p. 327 |
Representation and Democracy | p. 329 |
How Congress Works | p. 340 |
How Effective Is Congress? | p. 361 |
Congress and the Democratic Republic | p. 361 |
Key Terms | p. 363 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 363 |
Internet Sources | p. 364 |
ThePresident | p. 365 |
The Expanding Presidency | p. 368 |
The Powers and Roles of the President | p. 374 |
The President's Staff and Cabinet | p. 384 |
The President and Congress: Perpetual Tug-of-War | p. 388 |
The President and the People: An Evolving Relationship | p. 393 |
The Presidency and the Democratic Republic | p. 396 |
Key Terms | p. 398 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 398 |
Internet Sources | p. 399 |
TheFedral Bureaucracy | p. 400 |
The Bureaucracy in Democratic and Eighteenth-Century Republican Doctrines | p. 403 |
The American Bureaucracy: How Exceptional? | p. 404 |
How the Executive Branch Is Organized | p. 407 |
What Do Bureaucrats Do? | p. 409 |
Who Are the Bureaucrats? | p. 413 |
Political and Governmental Influences on Bureaucratic Behavior | p. 416 |
Reforming the Federal Bureaucracy | p. 423 |
The Federal Bureaucracy and the Democratic Republic | p. 428 |
Key Terms | p. 429 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 429 |
Internet Sources | p. 430 |
Thee Courts | p. 431 |
The Foundations of Judicial Power | p. 434 |
Eighteenth-Century Republican Constitutional Design | p. 435 |
The U.S. Court System: Organization and Jurisdiction | p. 438 |
Appointment to the Federal Bench | p. 442 |
The Supreme Court in Action | p. 446 |
The Supreme Court as a National Policymaker | p. 451 |
Outside Influences on the Court | p. 459 |
The Supreme Court and the Democratic Republic | p. 463 |
Key Terms | p. 463 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 464 |
Internet Sources | p. 464 |
What Government Does | p. 467 |
The Budget and Economic Policies | p. 469 |
Public Policy | p. 473 |
Economic Policies | p. 475 |
The Main Players and Influences on Economic Policy | p. 479 |
The Government's Macroeconomic Policy Tools | p. 482 |
Taxing, Spending, and the Federal Budget | p. 485 |
Regulation | p. 496 |
Economic Policies in the Democratic Republic | p. 500 |
Key Terms | p. 501 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 501 |
Internet Sources | p. 502 |
Social Safety Nets | p. 503 |
Why Safety Net Programs? | p. 506 |
An Outline of American Safety Net Programs | p. 510 |
Social Insurance | p. 512 |
Means-Tested Programs | p. 519 |
Differences in the American System of Social Safety Nets | p. 524 |
Social Safety Nets in the Democratic Republic | p. 528 |
Key Terms | p. 529 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 530 |
Internet Sources | p. 530 |
Foreign Policy and National Defense | p. 531 |
Foreign Policy and Democracy: A Contradiction in Terms? | p. 534 |
The World's Superpower (Still) | p. 535 |
Problems of the Post-Cold War World | p. 545 |
The Middle East | p. 548 |
Foreign and Defense Policies and the Democratic Republic | p. 556 |
Key Terms | p. 558 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | p. 558 |
Internet Sources | p. 559 |
Appendix | |
The Declaration of Independence | p. A-1 |
The Constitution of the United States | p. A-4 |
The Federalist Papers, Nos. 10, 51, and 78 | p. A-23 |
Presidents and Congresses, 1789-2013 | p. A-36 |
Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, 1789-2010 | p. A-42 |
Glossary | p. G-1 |
Endnotes | p. N-1 |
Credits | p. C-1 |
Index | p. I-1 |
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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