Michigan, like most of the states formed from the old Northwest, originated as a state of farmers, fishermen, and lumbermen and remained so until Detroit emerged as a major industrial center at the turn of the twentieth century. The growth of the automotive industry attracted new immigrants and new politics. Republican for most of its history, Michigan became a bipartisan state with political divisions: upper versus lower peninsula, agriculture versus industry, labor versus capital, developers versus ecologists, and conflicts between races. Lansing and its lobbyists and political action...

Arizona Politics and Government analyzes the development and operation of one of the country's fastest-growing states. David R. Berman cogently explains the distinctive history and culture of Arizona politics, thoroughly describing the development, structure, and operation of major components of the governing system. According to Berman, three forces have shaped the history, structure, and present character of Arizona politics: autonomy, the push for democracy, and economic development. Arizonans' belief in autonomy, derived from the traditional western individualism of settlers, has deeply...

Nevada s highly individualistic political culture has produced a conservative political philosophy in an open society. Economic developments resulting from mining and gambling reinforced and heightened the individualistic ethic that many early settlers brought to the frontier state. This ethic is also evident in the opposition of most Nevadans to big government, big labor, and big business. Belief in limited government partially explains the apparent anomaly of the electorate s backing a pro-choice position on abortion while opposing the Equal Rights Amendment.

The book discusses the...

North Carolina has been a leader in the South and the nation since 1775, when it became "First in Freedom" by calling for its independence from British rule. Throughout its history, the state has had a reputation as a progressive force. This book offers both an assessment and an examination of the realities of the state's leadership. Analyzing a wide range of political actors and organizations, which includes the state legislature, the governor and executive branch, the judiciary, political parties, interest groups, and the media, Fleer illuminates North Carolina's rich political history, its...

The authors of Mississippi Government and Politics go beyond the stereotyped view of the Magnolia State to consider the dramatic social, economic, and politi-cal changes taking place there in recent years. Yet the past is inextricably bound up with the present, as Dale Krane and Stephen D. Shaffer make clear in devel-oping their central theme: the ongoing clash in Mississippi between traditional-ists intent on preserving the status quo and progressives who have grown up with the civil rights movement. Mississippi Government and Politics presents a vivid social history and analysis of the...

Oklahoma is a plains state exemplifying the Middle American virtues of family, lodge, and church; a southern state in the path of the power shift from the indus-trial East to the energy-rich sunbelt; a western state of modern cowboys and rodeos. Small wonder its political culture is so varied. The authors of Oklahoma Politics and Policies contend that Oklahoma is a paradox a state struggling for a clear sense of identity where the old and new vie for the allegiance of its citizens.David R. Morgan, Robert E. England, and George O. Humphreys examine the history of Oklahoma and the place...

Alaska is the largest and one of the least populated of the fifty states extremes that create a unique government. Tied together by tiny airports and vast pipelines, the state features abundant natural resources and a remoteness that make it one of the last outposts of the United States, a role that Alaskans savor.

Gerald A. McBeath and Thomas A. Morehouse examine Alaska's character and the forces shaping it. Underlying their descriptions are the themes of independence, dependence, and the search for sustainable economic development. While independence and individualism are well-known...

Penny M. Miller takes a comprehensive approach to Kentucky politics and government. She uses the details of the state's political institutions and processes, its policy issues, and its place in national politics to demonstrate the tension between Kentucky's forces of change and its inertia. Since the Civil War, geographic, economic, and cultural factional divisions have dominated the struggle for progress in the Bluegrass state.

Yet Kentucky is in a state of change, and its political institutions have undergone significant transformations in the last few decades. Miller points out that the...