Americans consistently name Republicans as the party better at handling issues like national security and crime, while they trust Democrats on issues like education and the environment a phenomenon called issue ownership. Partisan Priorities investigates the origins of issue ownership, showing that in fact the parties deliver neither superior performance nor popular policies on the issues they own. Rather, Patrick J. Egan finds that Republicans and Democrats simply prioritize their owned issues with lawmaking and government spending when they are in power. Since the parties tend to be...

They started as simple trails and used by the Native Americans as trading and migration routes. The paths were the lifelines of a people who traveled long distances on their feet. Later, rough roads followed along these traces. Horses, wagons and supplies helped carry the settlers westward toward the open lands of the mid-west and onto California. Today, with the abundance of cars, the interstates, highways and byways are still the tracks over which millions of travellers continue to roam. Every farm road, mountain pass, and motel-lined state roadway, like the classic American highway, Route...