Download or read book Governing America written by Julian E. Zelizer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-04 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the study of American political history.
Download or read book The Unelected written by James R. Copland and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America is highly polarized around elections, but unelected actors make many of the decisions that affect our lives. In this lucid history, James R. Copland explains how unaccountable agents have taken over much of the U.S. government apparatus. Congress has largely abdicated its authority. “Independent” administrative agencies churn out thousands of new regulations every year. Courts have enabled these rulemakers to expand their powers beyond those authorized by law—and have constrained executive efforts to rein in the bureaucratic behemoth. No ordinary citizen can know what is legal and what is not. There are some 300,000 federal crimes, 98 percent of which were created by administrative action. The proliferation of rules gives enormous discretion to unelected enforcers, and the severity of sanctions can be ruinous to citizens who unwittingly violate a regulation. Outside the bureaucracy, private attorneys regulate our conduct through lawsuits. Most of the legal theories underlying these suits were never voted upon by our elected representatives. A combination of historical accident, decisions by judges and law professors, and self-interested advocacy by litigators has built an onerous and expensive legal regime. Finally, state and local officials may be accountable to their own voters, but some reach further afield, pursuing agendas to dictate the terms of national commerce. These new antifederalists are subjecting the citizens of Wyoming and Mississippi to the whims of the electorates of New York and San Francisco—contrary to the constitutional design. In these ways, the unelected have assumed substantial control of the American republic, upended the rule of law, given the United States the world’s costliest legal system, and inverted the Constitution’s federalism. Copland caps off his account with ideas for charting a corrective course back to democratic accountability.
Download or read book Governing with Words written by Daniel Q. Gillion and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-04 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that politicians' discussions of race increase policy success and public awareness, improving racial inequality.
Download or read book Can America Govern Itself written by Frances E. Lee and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-20 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can America Govern Itself? brings together a diverse group of distinguished scholars to analyze how rising party polarization and economic inequality have affected the performance of American governing institutions. It is organized around two themes: the changing nature of representation in the United States; and how changes in the political environment have affected the internal processes of institutions, overall government performance, and policy outcomes. The chapters in this volume analyze concerns about power, influence and representation in American politics, the quality of deliberation and political communications, the management and implementation of public policy, and the performance of an eighteenth century constitution in today's polarized political environment. These renowned scholars provide a deeper and more systematic grasp of what is new, and what is perennial in challenges to democracy at a fraught moment.
Download or read book Governing Security written by Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governing Security investigates the surprising history of two major federal agencies that touch the lives of Americans every day: the Roosevelt-era Federal Security Agency––which eventually became today's Department of Health and Human Services––and the more recently created Department of Homeland Security. By describing the legal, political, and institutional history of both organizations, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar offers a compelling account of crucial developments affecting the basic architecture of our nation. He shows how Americans end up choosing security goals not through an elaborate technical process, but in lively and overlapping settings involving conflict over statutory programs, agency autonomy, presidential power, and priorities for domestic and international risk regulation. Ultimately, as Cuéllar shows, ongoing fights about the scope of national security reshape the very structure of government and the intricate process through which statutes and regulations are implemented, particularly during––or in anticipation of––a national crisis.
Download or read book Governing States and Localities written by Kevin B. Smith and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2019-01-03 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The trusted and proven Governing States and Localities guides you through the contentious environment of state and local politics and focuses on the role that economic and budget pressures play on issues facing state and local governments. With their engaging journalistic writing and crisp storytelling, Kevin B. Smith and Alan Greenblatt employ a comparative approach to explain how and why states and localities are both similar and different. The Seventh Edition is thoroughly updated to account for such major developments as state vs. federal conflicts over immigration reform, school shootings, and gun control; the impact of the Donald Trump presidency on intergovernmental relations and issues of central interest to states and localities; and the lingering effects of the Great Recession.
Download or read book Governing Bodies written by Rachel Louise Moran and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans are generally apprehensive about what they perceive as big government—especially when it comes to measures that target their bodies. Soda taxes, trans fat bans, and calorie counts on menus have all proven deeply controversial. Such interventions, Rachel Louise Moran argues, are merely the latest in a long, albeit often quiet, history of policy motivated by economic, military, and familial concerns. In Governing Bodies, Moran traces the tension between the intimate terrain of the individual citizen's body and the public ways in which the federal government has sought to shape the American physique over the course of the twentieth century. Distinguishing her subject from more explicit and aggressive government intrusion into the areas of sexuality and reproduction, Moran offers the concept of the "advisory state"—the use of government research, publicity, and advocacy aimed at achieving citizen support and voluntary participation to realize social goals. Instituted through outside agencies and glossy pamphlets as well as legislation, the advisory state is government out of sight yet intimately present in the lives of citizens. The activities of such groups as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Children's Bureau, the President's Council on Physical Fitness, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) implement federal body projects in subtle ways that serve to mask governmental interference in personal decisions about diet and exercise. From advice-giving to height-weight standards to mandatory nutrition education, these tactics not only empower and conceal the advisory state but also maintain the illusion of public and private boundaries, even as they become blurred in practice. Weaving together histories of the body, public policy, and social welfare, Moran analyzes a series of discrete episodes to chronicle the federal government's efforts to shape the physique of its citizenry. Governing Bodies sheds light on our present anxieties over the proper boundaries of state power.
Download or read book Politics and Communication in America written by Robert E. Denton, Jr. and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2007-11-12 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communication provides the basis of social cohesion, issue discussion, and legislative enactmentcore features of political activity and governing in the United States. Denton and Kuypers, experts in the field of political communication, synthesize materials and sources from political science, communication, history, journalism, and sociology to demonstrate how communication intersects with these fields to formulate political beliefs, attitudes, and values. Conventional categories of political activitycampaigns, activity in Congress, the courts, the mass media, and the presidencystructure the discussions. Theoretical and applied concepts drawn from firsthand sources and classic historical works, plus extensive use of contemporary examples, enrich understanding. Written in an engaging, accessible style that is geared to an undergraduate audience, the text ignites readers awareness that the essence of politics is talk or human interaction. Such interaction is formal and informal, verbal and nonverbal, public and privatebut always persuasive in nature, causing audiences to interpret, to evaluate, and to act.
Download or read book Governing America written by Robert Singh and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aimed at undergraduate students of US government and politics, this volume offers an accessible and comprehensive examination of American politics both before and after September 11.
Download or read book Governing Through Crime written by Jonathan Simon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-02-03 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across America today gated communities sprawl out from urban centers, employers enforce mandatory drug testing, and schools screen students with metal detectors. Social problems ranging from welfare dependency to educational inequality have been reconceptualized as crimes, with an attendant focus on assigning fault and imposing consequences. Even before the recent terrorist attacks, non-citizen residents had become subject to an increasingly harsh regime of detention and deportation, and prospective employees subjected to background checks. How and when did our everyday world become dominated by fear, every citizen treated as a potential criminal?In this startlingly original work, Jonathan Simon traces this pattern back to the collapse of the New Deal approach to governing during the 1960s when declining confidence in expert-guided government policies sent political leaders searching for new models of governance. The War on Crime offered a ready solution to their problem: politicians set agendas by drawing analogies to crime and redefined the ideal citizen as a crime victim, one whose vulnerabilities opened the door to overweening government intervention. By the 1980s, this transformation of the core powers of government had spilled over into the institutions that govern daily life. Soon our schools, our families, our workplaces, and our residential communities were being governed through crime.This powerful work concludes with a call for passive citizens to become engaged partners in the management of risk and the treatment of social ills. Only by coming together to produce security, can we free ourselves from a logic of domination by others, and from the fear that currently rules our everyday life.
Download or read book Good Enough for Government Work written by Amy E. Lerman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-06-14 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American government is in the midst of a reputation crisis. An overwhelming majority of citizens—Republicans and Democrats alike—hold negative perceptions of the government and believe it is wasteful, inefficient, and doing a generally poor job managing public programs and providing public services. When social problems arise, Americans are therefore skeptical that the government has the ability to respond effectively. It’s a serious problem, argues Amy E. Lerman, and it will not be a simple one to fix. With Good Enough for Government Work, Lerman uses surveys, experiments, and public opinion data to argue persuasively that the reputation of government is itself an impediment to government’s ability to achieve the common good. In addition to improving its efficiency and effectiveness, government therefore has an equally critical task: countering the belief that the public sector is mired in incompetence. Lerman takes readers through the main challenges. Negative perceptions are highly resistant to change, she shows, because we tend to perceive the world in a way that confirms our negative stereotypes of government—even in the face of new information. Those who hold particularly negative perceptions also begin to “opt out” in favor of private alternatives, such as sending their children to private schools, living in gated communities, and refusing to participate in public health insurance programs. When sufficient numbers of people opt out of public services, the result can be a decline in the objective quality of public provision. In this way, citizens’ beliefs about government can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with consequences for all. Lerman concludes with practical solutions for how the government might improve its reputation and roll back current efforts to eliminate or privatize even some of the most critical public services.
Download or read book Governing America written by L. Peter Schultz and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1997 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governing America is intended to illuminate the character of the American constitutional order as it was created and as it functions today. It examines both the distant--philosophic--background of the Constitution as well as the immediate context in which that document was drafted. It then examines the Constitution itself, the separation of powers, and the three departments of the government that were created in 1787, arguing that the government created then was intended to be impressively powerful, potentially prudent, and partially popular. In fact, the new government was recognized by its creators as potentially dangerous given the scope and character of its powers, as well as its partially popular character. Early attempts to render this new government "safe" are examined, focusing on the presidencies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson. In this context, the phenomena of political parties and federalism are considered as tools used to render our government as safe as possible. Finally, Governing America examines the link between this powerful government and politics as practiced in the United States today, arguing that our politics are deeply affected by our continuing commitment to a powerful, prudent, and partially popular government.
Download or read book Governing America written by Tim Hames and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first section gives an overview of American political history, and focuses on the incidents which have shaped the nation's political culture. The second examines the major political institutions: the Presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, and state and local government. Other vital elements in the governmental system - the federal bureaucracy, mass media, political parties and interest groups - are then fully discussed.
Download or read book Governing America written by Joseph A. Califano and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-02 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joseph A. Califano, Jr. spent thirty years in Washington at the top of the Pentagon, on the White House staff as chief domestic advisor to the President, and in the Cabinet. His work, Governing America, explores the inner workings of the executive branch. From Simon & Schuster, Governing America is Joseph A. Califano, Jr.'s insider report from the White House an the cabinet.
Download or read book Democracy in America written by Benjamin I. Page and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America faces daunting problems—stagnant wages, high health care costs, neglected schools, deteriorating public services. How did we get here? Through decades of dysfunctional government. In Democracy in America? veteran political observers Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens marshal an unprecedented array of evidence to show that while other countries have responded to a rapidly changing economy by helping people who’ve been left behind, the United States has failed to do so. Instead, we have actually exacerbated inequality, enriching corporations and the wealthy while leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves. What’s the solution? More democracy. More opportunities for citizens to shape what their government does. To repair our democracy, Page and Gilens argue, we must change the way we choose candidates and conduct our elections, reform our governing institutions, and curb the power of money in politics. By doing so, we can reduce polarization and gridlock, address pressing challenges, and enact policies that truly reflect the interests of average Americans. Updated with new information, this book lays out a set of proposals that would boost citizen participation, curb the power of money, and democratize the House and Senate.
Download or read book The Forgotten Americans written by Isabel Sawhill and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation's economic inequalities One of the country's leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society--economic, cultural, and political--and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. Although many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and the federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.
Download or read book Governing the Hearth written by Michael Grossberg and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2004-01-21 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting a new framework for understanding the complex but vital relationship between legal history and the family, Michael Grossberg analyzes the formation of legal policies on such issues as common law marriage, adoption, and rights for illegitimate children. He shows how legal changes diminished male authority, increased women's and children's rights, and fixed more clearly the state's responsibilities in family affairs. Grossberg further illustrates why many basic principles of this distinctive and powerful new body of law--antiabortion and maternal biases in child custody--remained in effect well into the twentieth century.
