Originally published as American Government and Politics in the Information Age in …
Originally published as American Government and Politics in the Information Age in 2011 as CC BY-NC-SA. Updated by James J. Tuite in 2020. This is a textbook for the first part of an introductory course on the American political process. Teaches the structure, operation, and process of national, state, and local governments.
Video lectures are available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCInj8bmD5BUa9UnNrtAblznm6skFNZJh
This text is a comprehensive introduction to the vital subject of American …
This text is a comprehensive introduction to the vital subject of American government and politics. Governments decide who gets what, when, how (See Harold D. Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, [New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936]); they make policies and pass laws that are binding on all a society’s members; they decide about taxation and spending, benefits and costs, even life and death.Governments possess power—the ability to gain compliance and to get people under their jurisdiction to obey them—and they may exercise their power by using the police and military to enforce their decisions. However, power need not involve the exercise of force or compulsion; people often obey because they think it is in their interest to do so, they have no reason to disobey, or they fear punishment. Above all, people obey their government because it has authority; its power is seen by people as rightfully held, as legitimate. People can grant their government legitimacy because they have been socialized to do so; because there are processes, such as elections, that enable them to choose and change their rulers; and because they believe that their governing institutions operate justly.Politics is the process by which leaders are selected and policy decisions are made and executed. It involves people and groups, both inside and outside of government, engaged in deliberation and debate, disagreement and conflict, cooperation and consensus, and power struggles.In covering American government and politics, this text introduces the intricacies of the Constitution, the complexities of federalism, the meanings of civil liberties, and the conflicts over civil rights;explains how people are socialized to politics, acquire and express opinions, and participate in political life; describes interest groups, political parties, and elections—the intermediaries that link people to government and politics; details the branches of government and how they operate; and shows how policies are made and affect people’s lives.
Short Description: In covering American government and politics, our text introduces the …
Short Description: In covering American government and politics, our text introduces the intricacies of the Constitution, the complexities of federalism, the meanings of civil liberties, and the conflicts over civil rights, and shows how policies are made and affect people’s lives. For questions about this textbook please contact textbookuse@umn.edu
Long Description: American Government and Politics in the Information Age is adapted from a work produced by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning Support Initiative. For questions about this textbook please contact textbookuse@umn.edu
Word Count: 231906
ISBN: 978-1-946135-04-9
(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically as part of a bulk import process by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided. As a result, there may be errors in formatting.)
SETUPS (Empirical Teaching Unites in Political Science) data, published by the American …
SETUPS (Empirical Teaching Unites in Political Science) data, published by the American Political Science Association, will be employed in group data analysis projects in an American Government class. Students then use results from these reports in composing an essay question on the course's final exam.
This course is concerned primarily with the revolutionary origins of American government. …
This course is concerned primarily with the revolutionary origins of American government. Topics covered include: English and American backgrounds of the Revolution; issues and arguments in the Anglo-American conflict; colonial resistance and the beginnings of republicanism; the Revolutionary War; constitution writing for the states and nation; and effects of the American Revolution. Readings emphasize documents from the period--pamphlets, correspondence, the minutes or resolutions of resistance organizations, constitutional documents and debates.
We will explore the changing political choices and ethical dilemmas of American …
We will explore the changing political choices and ethical dilemmas of American scientists from the atomic scientists of World War II to biologists in the present wrestling with the questions raised by cloning and other biotechnologies. As well as asking how we would behave if confronted with the same choices, we will try to understand the choices scientists have made by seeing them in their historical and political contexts. Some of the topics covered include: the original development of nuclear weapons and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the effects of the Cold War on American science; the space shuttle disasters; debates on the use of nuclear power, wind power, and biofuels; abuse of human subjects in psychological and other experiments; deliberations on genetically modified food, the human genome project, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research; and the ethics of archaeological science in light of controversies over museum collections.
This course is a seminar on the history of institutions and institutional …
This course is a seminar on the history of institutions and institutional change in American cities from roughly 1850 to the present. Among the institutions to be looked at are political machines, police departments, courts, schools, prisons, public authorities, and universities. The focus of the course is on readings and discussions.
This is a seminar course that explores the history of selected features …
This is a seminar course that explores the history of selected features of the physical environment of urban America. Among the features considered are parks, cemeteries, tenements, suburbs, zoos, skyscrapers, department stores, supermarkets, and amusement parks. The course gives students experience in working with primary documentation sources through its selection of readings and class discussions. Students then have the opportunity to apply this experience by researching their own historical questions and writing a term paper.
This is a problem-based learning activity that guides students through a process …
This is a problem-based learning activity that guides students through a process whereby the class as a whole investigates various stakeholder perspectives on the global climate change controversy. Individual students then reflect on their own perspectives in light of what they have learned.
An exercise to analyze trends in global oil reserves, production, and consumption. …
An exercise to analyze trends in global oil reserves, production, and consumption.
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Students conducted data analysis about American political divisions and created two papers …
Students conducted data analysis about American political divisions and created two papers from this data analysis. Sutdents were assigned to group projects involving data analysis assigned chapters in MICROCASE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, a textbook that includes access to a variety of datasets.
This course teaches students how to understand the rationality behind how organizations …
This course teaches students how to understand the rationality behind how organizations and their programs behave, and to be comfortable and analytical with a live organization. It thereby builds analytic skills for evaluating programs and projects, organizations, and environments. It draws on the literature of the sociology of organizations, political science, public administration, and historical experience-and is based on both developing-country and developed-country experience.
These primary source excerpts are broken into 2 groups: Cuban perspectives and …
These primary source excerpts are broken into 2 groups: Cuban perspectives and American perspectives of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Consider having students work in pairs or small groups to read, discussion and answer the questions for their perspective. Then have students from both perspectives share observations. Consider using a guided question such as "Why are views so different for the same event, especially of those who fought at the Bay of Pigs?"
This course focuses on alternative ways in which the issues of growth, …
This course focuses on alternative ways in which the issues of growth, restructuring, innovation, knowledge, learning, and accounting and measurements can be examined, covering both industrialized and emerging countries. We give special emphasis to recent transformations in regional economies throughout the world and to the implications these changes have for the theories and research methods used in spatial economic analyses. Readings will relate mainly to the United States, but we cover pertinent material on foreign countries in lectures.
In Spring 2019, students at The State University of New York College …
In Spring 2019, students at The State University of New York College at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburgh) researched, designed, and built And Still We Rise: Celebrating Plattsburgh’s (Re)Discovery of Iconic Black Visitors (ASWR), an exhibit in the Feinberg Library on prominent Black political and cultural figures who had visited the college since the 1960s. The thirteen students in African-American Political Thought (Political Science 371), taught by Dr. John McMahon, researched in the college’s archives and secondary sources to curate photos, text and multimedia for physical and virtual exhibits.
This video explains how and why Fidel Castro supported the MPLA in …
This video explains how and why Fidel Castro supported the MPLA in Angola from 1975 to 2002. The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was the largest military confrontation in Africa after World War II. The civil war in Angola was one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts of the twentieth century.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, marked a …
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, marked a harrowing turning point in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, which originated in 2014. This brazen act of aggression, deemed the largest assault on a European nation since World War II, reverberated globally, eliciting shock and grave concerns regarding its ramifications for regional stability and international relations.Fast forward to the year 2024, and we find ourselves entrenched in the third year of this relentless conflict, surpassing its second anniversary. The protracted duration of this war has exacted a heavy toll on both Ukraine and Russia, inflicting widespread devastation, countless casualties, and the forced displacement of civilians on a massive scale.
This course introduces the ethnographic study of politics, i.e., what anthropologists understand …
This course introduces the ethnographic study of politics, i.e., what anthropologists understand to be "political" in various social and economic systems, from small-scale societies to liberal democratic states. It examines politics across three contemporary contexts: electoral politics, public spheres, bureaucracies and humanitarian governance. Students consider and analyze how questions of authority, coercion, and violence have been theorized to relate to the political, and how some aspects of social life are regimented in explicitly non-political ways.
This course examines the birth and international expansion of an American industry …
This course examines the birth and international expansion of an American industry of political marketing. It focuses attention on the cultural processes, sociopolitical contexts and moral utopias that shape the practice of political marketing in the U.S. and in different countries. By looking at the debates and expert practices at the core of the business of politics, the course explores how the "universal" concept of democracy is interpreted and reworked through space and time, while examining how different cultural groups experimenting with political marketing understand the role of citizens in a democracy.
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