American Politics Today

Cover
Publisher’s Notice
Voter Registration Information
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Authors
Contents in Brief
Contents
Preface
Features of the Text and Media Package
Acknowledgments
Half-title Page
Chapter 1: Understanding American Politics
Making sense of American government and politics
What is politics?
Sources of conflict in American politics
Resolving conflict: democracy and American political values
How to be a critical consumer of politics
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 2: The Constitution and the Founding
The historical context of the Constitution
The politics of compromise at the Constitutional Convention
Ratification
The Constitution: a framework for government
Is the Constitution a “living†document?
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 3: Federalism
What is federalism and why does it matter?
Balancing national and state power in the Constitution
The evolving concept of federalism
Federalism today
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
Defining civil liberties
Freedom of religion
Freedom of speech, assembly, and the press
The right to bear arms
Law, order, and the rights of criminal defendants
Privacy rights
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 5: Civil Rights
The context of civil rights
The racial divide today
Key players in the conflict over civil rights
Civil rights issues today
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 6: Public Opinion and the Media
What is public opinion?
Where do opinions come from?
Measuring public opinion
What Americans think about politics
The news media
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 7: Political Parties
What are political parties and where did today’s parties come from?
American political parties today
The role of political parties in American politics
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 8: Elections
How do American elections work?
Electoral campaigns
How do voters decide?
Understanding the 2020 and 2022 elections
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 9: Interest Groups
What are interest groups?
Interest group strategies
How much power do interest groups have?
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 10: Congress
Congress and the people
The structure of Congress
How a bill becomes a law
Oversight
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 11: The Presidency
The development of presidential power
The president’s job description
The presidency as an institution
Presidential power today
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 12: The Bureaucracy
What is the federal bureaucracy?
How has the American bureaucracy grown?
The modern federal bureaucracy
The human face of the bureaucracy
Controlling the bureaucracy
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 13: The Courts
The development of an independent and powerful federal judiciary
The American legal and judicial system
Access to the Supreme Court
Hearing cases before the Supreme Court
Supreme Court decision-making
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 14: Economic and Social Policy
Making public policy
Economic policy
Social policy
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Chapter 15: Foreign Policy
What is foreign policy?
Foreign policy makers
The tools of foreign policy
The politics of foreign policy today
Unpacking the Conflict
Why Should I Care?
Check Your Understanding
Appendix
The Declaration of Independence
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States of America
Amendments to the Constitution
The Federalist Papers
Endnotes
Check Your Understanding Answer Key
Credits
Glossary/Index