Government and Politics of the United States

✍ Scribed by Nigel Bowles

• Publisher: Red Globe Press
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 503
• Series: Comparative Government and Politics
• Edition: 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This extensively revised new edition offers a broad-ranging, systematic and sophisticated introduction contemplating the institutions and processes of government in the US set in a clear historical context.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Contents
List of Illustrative Material
List of Abbreviations
Preface to the Third Edition and Acknowledgements
Preface to the First Edition and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1
Beliefs and Values in American
Society
Values and American society
The diversity of American society
The core values within American political culture
Conflict and consensus within American society
Conclusion
Chapter 2 The Constitution: Creating the Rules of the Game
Why the Constitution matters
The creation of a new republic
The Constitutional Convention: the great compromise
The core principles of the Federal Constitution
The core structural features of the Constitutional settlement: horizontal and vertical separation
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Changing the Constitution through judicial interpretation
Conclusion
Chapter 3 Political Parties: The Politics of Aggregation and Disaggregation
The nature of American parties
The development of the American two-party system
Parties as organizations
Parties in the electorate
Parties in government
The resurgence of parties
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Elections and the Politics of Participation
Who votes and who does not
How Americans run for election
How Americans vote
Who wins and why
Conclusion
Chapter 5 The Presidency and the Politics of Leadership
Presidential leadership
The powers of the presidency
The presidency and the mass media
The vice-presidency
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and the modern presidency
The obligation to bargain
The presidency and the executive branch
The presidency and Congress
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Congress and the Politics of Legislative Competition
Procedural and structural dimensions
The bicameral dimension
The institutional dimension
The individual dimension
The specialized and fissiparous dimension
The aggregative and collective dimension
Party organization in the House
Party organization in the Senate
Party and voting
Caucuses
The procedural dimension
Legislation in the House
Legislation in the Senate
Conclusion
Chapter 7 The Supreme Court and the Politics of Adjudication
The organization and role of the judiciary
The Supreme Court’s jurisdiction
Procedure
Judicial review
The Supreme Court and the elected branches
Chief justices and leadership of the Court
Conclusion
Chapter 8 Interest Groups
Interest groups: opportunities and constraints
Interest groups and access to government
Participants in the interest industry
Classifying interest groups
Evaluating interest groups
Conclusion
Chapter 9 Bureaucracy: The Fourth Branch of Government
The institutional setting of the Fourth Branch
The federal civil service
Reforming the civil service
The growth of federal regulation
Bureaucratic structure and organization
Administrative law
Congressional control of the bureaucracy
Presidential control and the problems of bureaucracy
Conclusion
Chapter 10 Federalism and Intergovernmental Policy- Making
Federalism: theory and structure
The development of the constitutional law of federalism
Federalism: structure and process of intergovernmental fiscal and policy relations
Cooperative federalism
Nixon, Reagan and the new federalisms
Conclusion
Chapter 11 Domestic Economic Policy
The economic policy process
Participants in economy policy-making
Monetary policy: the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banks
Objects and processes of economic policy-making
Processes of economic policy-making: an assessment
Conclusion
Chapter 12 Foreign and Defence Policy
Foreign policy, defence policy and the national interest
Institutional participants in foreign and defence policy
Processes of foreign and defence policy-making
Conclusion
Conclusion
Appendix 1 The Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights and Later Amendments
Appendix 2 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States
Appendix 3 Constitutional Allocation of Powers over Foreign and Defence Policy
Further Reading
Bibliography
Index