UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is a mainstream text that reflects a diversity point of view. Focusing on the responsiveness of government, the text helps students understand the evolution and impact of important features of government. The book is a three-time winner of the annual award given by the women's caucus of APSA for coverage of women. Written in an engaging style and offering more research citations than any book on the market, UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is readable and scholarly. This brief version of AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, Eighth Edition, excludes the four policy chapters. Otherwise, the books are identical, and share the same supplement package.

UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is highly respected and trusted for its attention to research and issues of diversity, as well as for its award-winning team of authors. While covering the foundations of American government, this text also moves beyond the nuts and bolts to explain why and how important aspects of government have evolved, their impact on government and individuals, and why they may be controversial, inspire debate, and worth learning. More than just narrating facts and current issues, UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT leaves students with an understanding of the “why”, so their knowledge can be applied long after the course is completed. UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is a three-time winner of the American Government Textbook Award for the Best Treatment of Women in Politics, by the Women’s Caucus for Political Science. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is highly respected and trusted for its attention to research and issues of diversity, as well as for its award-winning team of authors. While covering the foundations of American government, this text also moves beyond the nuts and bolts to explain why and how important aspects of government have evolved, their impact on government and individuals, and why they may be controversial, inspire debate, and worth learning. More than just narrating facts and current issues, UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT leaves students with an understanding of the “why”, so their knowledge can be applied long after the course is completed. UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is a three-time winner of the American Government Textbook Award for the Best Treatment of Women in Politics, by the Women’s Caucus for Political Science. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, 7th, is a mainstream text with diverse perspectives. Focusing on the responsiveness of government, it helps students understand the evolution and impact of important features of government. The book is a three-time winner of the annual award given by the women's caucus of APSA for coverage of women. Written in an engaging writing style and with more research citations than any book on the market, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is both readable and scholarly. It includes the four policy chapters that the brief UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT does not.

Throughout this century, reformers have fought to eliminate party control of city politics. As a result, the majority of American cities today elect council members in at-large and nonpartisan elections. This result of the turn-of-the-century Progressive movement, which worked for election rules that eliminated the power of the urban machine and the working class on which it was based, is today still a subject of lively debate. For example, in the mid-1980s, regular Democrats in Chicago sought to institute a nonpartisan mayoral election. Supporters thought that reform would make the electoral process more democratic, while opponents charged that it was meant to dilute the voting powers of blacks. Clearly, the effect of urban reform remains an important issue for scholars and politicians alike. Susan Welch and Timothy Bledsoe clarify a portion of the debate by investigating how election structures affect candidates and the nature of representation. They examine the different effects of district versus at-large elections and of partisan versus nonpartisan elections. Who gets elected? Are representatives' socioeconomic status and party affiliation related to election form? Are election structures related to how those who are elected approach their jobs? Do they see themselves as representatives concerned with the good of the city as a whole? Urban Reform and Its Consequences reports an unprecedented wealth of data drawn from a sample of nearly 1,000 council members and communities with populations between 50,000 and 1 million across 42 states. The sample includes communities that use a variety of election procedures. This study is therefore the most comprehensive and accurate to date. Welch and Bledsoe conclude that nonpartisan and at-large elections do give city councils a more middle- and upper-middle-class character and have changed the way representatives view their jobs. Reform measures have not, however, produced councils that are significantly more conservative or more prone to conflict. Overall, the authors conclude that partisan and district elections are more likely to represent the whole community and to make the council more accountable to the electorate.

An analysis of the attitudes and behavior of African Americans and whites.

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is a mainstream text that reflects a diversity point of view. Focusing on the responsiveness of government, it helps students understand the evolution and impact of important features of government. The book is a three-time winner of the annual award given by the women's caucus of APSA for coverage of women. Written in an engaging style and offering more research citations than any book on the market, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is readable and scholarly. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT includes the four policy chapters that the brief UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT does not.

UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is highly respected and trusted for its attention to research and issues of diversity, its award-winning team of authors, and its brief length, made so by not covering policy. While covering the basic foundations and features of American Government, this text also moves beyond the nuts and bolts, to explain why and how important features of government have evolved, their impact on government and individuals, and why these features are controversial (if they are) and worth learning. More than just narrating facts and current issues, UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN GOVERNMENT attempts to leave the students with an understanding of the "why," so their knowledge can be applied long after the course is completed. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT (with policy chapters) is a three-time winner of the American Government Textbook Award for the Best Treatment of Women in Politics, by the Women's Caucus for Political Science.

The first women representatives in the United States were elected in 1894 when Colorado votes sent three women to the state legislature. Now, a century later, women almost everywhere are the majority of voters but a distinct minority of elected officials. This discrepancy is a puzzle for those who thought democratic institutions would incorporate newly enfranchised women, and a problem for those working to expand democratic representation. Darcy, Welch, and Clark examine women candidates and candidacies in the United States and several other democratic nations. Their careful analysis reveals that male voters and political elites are not the barriers to women's election that common wisdom suggests. Instead, they find that a party's ability to determine candidate selection, along with election procedures that benefit incumbents, produces slow turnover of elected officials and few opportunities for new women candidates. In addition, the authors analyze nomination procedures and election systems to document both the conditions that lead political parties to nominate more women and the mechanisms that yield more victories by women candidates. Women, Elections, and Representation is an extensively revised and expanded edition of a successful text that provides a thorough and up-to-date account of research on women and politics.

"The authors take a unique approach: they reject the view that women should accommodate themselves to the system and argue instead that the system has an inherent obligation to accommodate itself to women. Using data from local, state, and national levels they formulate a model of elections. The authors contend that as the number of qualified women increases, more will run for office-and more will be elected. As more women are elected, the incumbency factor will assist in their reelection until the number of elected women reaches parity with that of men." -- Book Cover.