Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> American Government - General

From Truman to Clinton presidents have aggressively tried to expand their control over national government. In the process, they have vastly enlarged their White House staffs and politicized the federal bureaucracy with thousands of appointees in key administrative positions. Thomas Weko argues that the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), charged with screening and recommending such appointees, both exemplifies and helps explain the enormous growth of presidential power since World War II.

Originally conceived as a small advisory group within the White House Office, the PPO has grown...

Ronald Kahn greatly revises our understanding of Supreme Court decision making and its relation to constitutional theory in the eras of chief justices Earl Warren, Warren Burger, and William Rehnquist. In the process, he refutes the longstanding stereotypes of an activist Warren Court trying to legislate individual rights and of a visionless Burger Court hiding in its predecessor's shadows.

Kahn contends that the dominant view of the Supreme Court as just another political institution is incorrect. That view depicts an unprincipled court wavering before external politics and public...

Even as we marvel at the grandeur of our constitutional system, we can't resist tinkering with it. Amending America tells the dramatic story of how, over the past 206 years, the American people have reshaped the Constitution to meet the country's changing needs. It describes how we have adopted 27 amendments since 1789-and debated and rejected 10,000 more.

A provocative examination of one of America's most important yet least-known democratic tools, Amending America brings to life events in our history that continue to resonate today as, as various politicians have set their hearts...

American schools are in a state of crisis.

At the root of our current perplexity, beneath the difficulties with funding, social problems, and low test scores, festers a serious uncertainty as to what the focus and goals of education should be. We are increasingly haunted by the suspicion that our educational theories and institutions have lost sight of the need to perpetuate a core of moral and civic knowledge that is essential for any citizen's education, and indeed for any individual's happiness. Mining the Founders' rich reflections on education, the Pangles suggest, can help us...

In this provocative and readable volume, eleven leading constitutional authorities challenge "business as usual" in American foreign policymaking. For far too long, they contend, Americans have acquiesced to presidential claims to sweeping executive powers in foreign

affairs--thanks to imperial-minded presidents, a weak-willed Congress, and neglectful scholars.

These authors forcefully argue that the president is not the supreme crafter of foreign policy and that Congress must provide more than a rubber stamp for the president's agenda. Unilateral presidential control of foreign...

This book critiques and challenges the rise of communitarian thought in America. With a skeptical eye, Bruce Frohnen seeks to cut through the communitarians' rhetoric of community, commitment, and spirituality to reveal the egalitarian materialism at the core of their enterprise.

Frohnen argues that the "new communitarians"--exemplified by political philosophers Charles Taylor and William Galston, as well as popularizers like Bill Clinton, Amitai Etzioni, Garry Wills, Mario Cuomo, and Robert Bellah--are actually old liberals trying to salvage political legitimacy by advocating allegiance...

Perfectly timed to anticipate the possible election of a new president in 1996, the second edition of James Pfiffner's The Strategic Presidency provides the most complete and authoritative volume on presidential transitions from JFK to Bill Clinton. First published in 1988, it is now more valuable than ever with the addition of new chapters on the Bush and Clinton transitions and numerous other revisions that greatly update the volume.

When the book first appeared eight years ago, it was hailed by the American Political Science Review as an important new work following in...

When Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, the Christian Right claimed a major role in their defeat and House Speaker Newt Gingrich credited the "organized Christian vote" with the Republican victory. Ministers from many political persuasions have long been active in American politics, but in the 1980s and 1990s it has seemed impossible to find any political controversy that did not involve the clergy-often on both sides of the issue.

The Bully Pulpit is the first major study of clergy politics in more than twenty years. Drawing on two decades of survey research involving...

When Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, the Christian Right claimed a major role in their defeat and House Speaker Newt Gingrich credited the "organized Christian vote" with the Republican victory. Ministers from many political persuasions have long been active in American politics, but in the 1980s and 1990s it has seemed impossible to find any political controversy that did not involve the clergy-often on both sides of the issue.

The Bully Pulpit is the first major study of clergy politics in more than twenty years. Drawing on two decades of survey research involving...

Few issues have clung to the presidency in recent years as tenaciously as that of moral leadership. This timely book, based on a lifetime of personal observation by an award-winning author, examines the politics of ideals to propose that, just as moral purpose without political craft is weak, political acumen without moral appeal is futile.

Looking back to the timeless political theories of Aristotle and Machiavelli, Erwin C. Hargrove asks how presidents can most effectively combine political arts and skills with intellectual and moral leadership. He draws on his own scholarly research...

For civil servants who take an oath to uphold the Constitution, that document is the supreme symbol of political morality. Constitutional issues are addressed by civil servants every day, whenever a policeman arrests a suspect or members of different branches of government meet. But how well do these individuals really understand the Constitution's application in their jobs?

This book encourages civil servants to reflect on specific constitutional principles and events and learn to apply them to the decisions they make. Twenty seminal articles by a preeminent scholar seek to legitimate...

For decades political scientists studying the Court have adopted behavioral approaches and focused on the relatively narrow question of how the justices' policy preferences influence their voting behavior. This emphasis has illuminated important aspects of Supreme Court politics, but it has also left unaddressed many other important questions about this unique and fascinating institution.

Drawing on "the new institutionalism" in the social sciences, the distinguished contributors to this volume attempt to fill this gap by exploring a variety of topics, including the Court's institutional...

Few issues have clung to the presidency in recent years as tenaciously as that of moral leadership. This timely book, based on a lifetime of personal observation by an award-winning author, examines the politics of ideals to propose that, just as moral purpose without political craft is weak, political acumen without moral appeal is futile.

Looking back to the timeless political theories of Aristotle and Machiavelli, Erwin C. Hargrove asks how presidents can most effectively combine political arts and skills with intellectual and moral leadership. He draws on his own scholarly research...

As people of diverse origins seek their rights as citizens in the great American melting pot, the differences between us are sometimes celebrated but more often cursed. White Americans, too often forgetful of their own immigrant backgrounds, question whether initiatives like affirmative action that extend privileges to minorities violate the principle of equal treatment under the law.

In this provocative book, David Ingram brings a variety of current social dilemmas together in a mutually illuminating way. He examines the concept of legal equality in a multiracial society by considering...

Elected in hard times and serving throughout a catastrophic global war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt confronted crises of epic proportions during his record twelve-year tenure as our nation's chief executive. George McJimsey now provides a fresh account of his much-debated presidency, describing the successes and failures of FDR's landmark administration and offering a new perspective on the New Deal.

A welcome synthesis of the best modern scholarship on the Roosevelt administration, McJimsey's study portrays Roosevelt as a pluralist leader whose various New Deal programs empowered the...

Noted tax economist Frederick C. Stocker has observed that the property tax "resembles a structure designed by a mad architect, erected on a shaky foundation by an incompetent builder, and made worse by the well-intentioned repair work of hordes of amateur tinkerers." While that may still be a popular view, Glenn Fisher suggests that the actual history of this much-maligned tax should make us less inclined to such easy ridicule.

The frequent scapegoat of rebellious taxpayers, yet essential for the functioning of modern local governments, the property tax has a long and controversial...

A gritty and uncompromising wake-up call to concerned citizens on what they can do to turn this country around.

Lucas Morel examines what the public life of Abraham Lincoln teaches about the role of religion in a self-governing society. Lincoln's understanding of the requirements of republican government led him to accommodate and direct religious sentiment toward responsible self-government. As a successful republic requires a moral or self-controlled people, Lincoln believed, the moral and religious sensibilities of a society should be nurtured.

Scholarship on the role of religion in American public life has taken on a new urgency in the increasingly contentious wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. This volume brings together an impressive group of scholars to build on past work and broaden the scope of this crucial inquiry in two respects: by exploring aspects of the religion-politics nexus in the United States that have been neglected in the past, and by examining traditional questions concerning the religious tincture of American political discourse in provocative new ways. Essays include examinations of religious rhetoric...

What are the limits of justified retaliation against aggression? What actions are morally permissible in preventing future aggression? Against whom may retaliation be aimed? These questions have long been part of the debate over the ethics of warfare. They all took on new meaning after terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners on September 11, 2001. War after September 11 considers the just aims and legitimate limits of the United States' response to the terrorist attacks. Six essayists from the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland pair off to discuss ethical...