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Introduction to American Government

Introduction to American Government

Eleventh Edition   Turner, et al., © 2021, 563 pages

Introduction to American Government provides students with a comprehensive, readable, and balanced study of the context, structure, and process of American politics. The text highlights the importance of economics and ideology in the context of American government.

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978-1-5178-1111-2
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Instructor’s Manual
The Instructor's Manual consists of chapter summaries, learning objectives, key terms, chapter and lecture outlines, peer-reviewed articles and YouTube videos, lecture suggestions and classroom activities to better assist you with your teaching curriculum.
PowerPoint Slides
This PowerPoint™ slide set combines figures, tables and text to further illustrate the principles discussed in the text.
Midterm Election Supplement (2023)
While the eyes of the world focus on American elections every four years—when we hold elections to choose the president—national elections actually take place across the country every two years. These midterm elections tend to garner less attention from the media, yet they often hold profound implications for the governance of the United States. So that your Introduction to American Government textbook can be as up-to-date as possible, we are providing this supplement, which focuses on the wide-ranging significance of the 2022 midterm election and its aftermath. Throughout it, subheadings are keyed to sections in the main text to which they are most related.
General Election Supplement (2024)
A key feature of democratic governments is their acceptance of change. While American political institutions have been remarkably consistent and durable in many ways, frequent elections and responsiveness to the electorate guarantee that new laws, new leaders, and new ideas emerge with some regularity. So that your Introduction to American Government textbook can be as up-to-date as possible, we are providing this supplement, which focuses on some of the significant issues that have developed recently in American politics. The sections are organized institutionally, focusing on Congress, the Presidency, and the Courts.
Exam Bank (Blackboard)
The Blackboard Exam Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. This file is an archive of per-chapter zipped Blackboard pool files.
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The Canvas QTI Exam Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. This file is an archive of per-chapter zipped QTI pool files.
Exam Bank (Word)
The Exam Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions
Quiz Bank (Blackboard)
The Blackboard Quiz Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. This file is an archive of per-chapter zipped Blackboard pool files.
Quiz Bank (Canvas QTI)
The Canvas QTI Quiz Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. This file is an archive of per-chapter zipped Canvas QTI pool files.
Quiz Bank (Word)
The Quiz Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions.
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The Blackboard Homework Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. This file is an archive of per-chapter zipped Blackboard pool files
Homework Bank (Canvas QTI)
The Canvas QTI Homework Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. This file is an archive of per-chapter zipped Canvas QTI pool files
Homework Bank (Word)
The Homework Bank contains questions in a variety of formats including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions.

Excerpts

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About the Authors

Charles Turner person
Charles C. Turner is a professor of political science at California State University, Chico. His PhD is from Claremont Graduate University. He has taught at Chico State since 2000 and has served as department chair and as president of the Chico chapter of the California Faculty Association. Turner’s published research focuses on the political behavior of Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as on the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Robert Bresler person
Robert J. Bresler received his AB degree from Earlham College and his PhD from Princeton University. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, the University of Delaware, and Penn State University–Harrisburg, where he completed a thirty-two-year career. During his time at Penn State, Professor Bresler served for some years as the director of the School of Public Affairs. He has been a visiting professor at the U.S. Army War College and the Franklin & Marshall College and a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the National University of Singapore. He was the recipient of the James A. Jordan Award for Teaching Excellence and the Outstanding Civilian Award from the Department of the Army. Professor Bresler is the National Affairs Editor of USA Today: The Magazine of the American Scene, where he writes a regular column on American politics. His books include Us vs. Them: American Political and Cultural Conflict from WWII to Watergate and Freedom of Association: Civil Rights and Liberties Under the Law. His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Politics and Society, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Commonweal, Inquiry, The Nation, Intellect, and Telos.
Robert Friedrich person
Robert J. Friedrich is an associate professor in the Department of Government at Franklin & Marshall College, where he teaches courses in American government, public opinion and mass political behavior, political ideology, and research methods. His research interests are in electoral politics and electoral institutions, particularly the relationship between seats and votes in legislative elections, and in political values and ideology. He has reviewed manuscripts for the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics, for which he also served on the editorial board. Dr. Friedrich received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and his master’s and doctor of philosophy degrees from the University ofMichigan.
Joseph Karlesky person
Joseph J. Karlesky is the Honorable and Mrs. John C. Kunkel Professor of Government. He received his Bachelor’s degree from La Salle College and his PhD in public law and government from Columbia University. He is co-author of The State of Academic Science: The Universities in the Nation’s Research Effort and of American Government, an American government textbook. He has also authored the monograph “Thinking About Environmental Policy.” He has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, and has served as a consultant for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on home rule for municipalities and on academic science policy for the state of Montana. He has served as associate dean for academic affairs at Franklin & Marshall and as codirector of the University of Pennsylvania Master of Governmental Administration Program in Harrisburg. His teaching and research interests focus on public policy, particularly the interrelationships between public policy and science and technology and the consequences of these interrelationships for policies in energy and health. He is currently doing research on decision-making models and dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel. He regularly teaches courses in American government, understanding public policy, public policy implementation, and a seminar on health policy.
D. Grier Stephenson Jr. person
Donald Grier Stephenson Jr. is a Charles A. Dana Professor of Government at Franklin & Marshall College. He is general editor of ABC-CLIO’s America’s Freedoms Series, author of Campaigns and the Court: The U.S. Supreme Court in Presidential Elections, and co-author of American Constitutional Law, 15thedition.

Description

The need persists for widespread mastery of the political system John Quincy Adams once described as “the most complicated on the face of the globe.” Adams was writing nearly two hundred years ago, and things certainly haven’t become less complicated since then. In the early 2000s, we experienced a number of political complications, including several close and contentious presidential elections that geographically and ideologically divided our nation into “red” and “blue” states. We suffered a devastating terrorist attack on our own soil, plunging the nation into an open-ended and contentious “War on Terror.” We went to war with Iraq for the second time in a dozen years. We saw the national economy reach great heights and disturbing lows, causing unemployment and recession in the private sector and a return of enormous deficit spending in the public sector. We began to recognize the need for significant changes to deal with persistent and systemic racial injustices. We faced a deadly pandemic that forced us to restructure many aspects of our lives. How do we make sense of all these ups and downs of economics, ideology, and politics? We think the best approach is to take seriously our understanding of the political system in which all of these events take place. To that end, we offer today’s students a comprehensive, readable, and balanced study of the context, structure, and process of American politics.

A distinguishing feature of this book is the explicit recognition that economics and ideology significantly influence American politics. No student or instructor in a course on American government is immune to the ideological and economic forces that help shape the perennial pursuit of power in a democracy. Nor is any class or instructor untouched by recurring problems ranging from budget deficits and health care to unemployment and the underclass. Economics and ideology, in one way or another, intersect nearly all of them.

This text highlights, in several ways, the importance of economics and ideology in the context of American government. The chapter on public policy and economics explores the relationship between politics and economics, as does a series of “Politics and Economics” boxes (described later) found throughout the book. Students see how economic decisions have political consequences and how political decisions affect the economy. This is essential information in a day when economic topics frequently dominate electoral campaigns, television and internet news, and conversation both at the dinner table and via social media. However, the text assumes no prior knowledge of economics, and references to economic policy are free of confusing jargon.

Understanding differences among political beliefs is likewise essential at a time when the labels “liberal” and “conservative,” “left” and “right” are hurled about. Such terms can be baffling, particularly because their meanings have not been consistent. Consequently, the text underscores the importance of political ideology—the ideas people have about what government should or should not do and what kind of government they should have. This emphasis is reflected in a series of “Politics and Ideas” boxes (described later) that appear throughout the text. The chapter on political ideologies is nearly unique among shorter volumes on American government because it draws a road map that guides students through intellectual debates, past and present, in American politics. Additionally, the chapter that deals with civil liberties and civil rights probes ideological distinctions among Americans concerning fundamental freedoms. Such an encompassing survey of the spectrum of political ideas encourages students both to comprehend and to tolerate points of view other than their own, enabling them to gain further insight into political differences that exist nationwide.

New to the Eleventh Edition

American politics is a constantly changing montage of people and events, of facts and opinions. To keep up with our changing environment, and to make sure students have the most up-to-date information available, each new edition of Introduction to American Government undergoes a vigorous process of fact-checking and updating. In this edition, for example, readers will find revised weblinks and readings for further study; more critical thinking questions; and discussions of the latest events in American government, such as the 2020 presidential election, the Trump presidency and impeachments, the recent racial justice movements, the Barrett Supreme Court nomination and important recent Court decisions, the government’s response to wildfires and other disasters, and numerous discussions of the relationship between the US government and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, each chapter contains important new material and the most current available facts and figures.

Pedagogical Features

This textbook is not a “theme,” or point-of-view, book. Aside from emphasizing the importance of politics and political involvement, the book embraces no single ideological perspective; it does not attempt to make readers Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives. To ensure a single voice in this presentation, one author has served as general editor.

The goals are knowledge of and critical thinking about American politics and government. Accordingly, we have designed the book to encourage students to engage the material. Passive reading is not enough; understanding so important and complex a subject necessitates active intellectual involvement.

To aid in learning, this textbook incorporates several serviceable pedagogical features.

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