Sample course syllabi provide suggested models for structuring your course.
Editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides offer complete flexibility for creating a multimedia presentation for the course, so you don’t have to start from scratch but can customize to your exact needs.
An instructor’s manual for each chapter includes a chapter summary, outline, multimedia links, discussion questions, and in-class activities.
A set of all the graphics from the text, including all the maps, tables, and figures in PowerPoint formats are provided for class presentations.
SAGE Premium Video
American Democracy in Context offers premium video, available exclusively in the SAGE vantage digital option, produced and curated specifically for this text, to boost comprehension and bolster analysis.
SAGE Course Outcomes
Outlined in your text and mapped to chapter learning objectives, SAGE course outcomes are crafted with specific course outcomes in mind and vetted by advisers in the field. See how SAGE course outcomes tie in with this book’s chapter-level objectives at http://edge.sagepub.com/maltese.
In the electronic edition of the book you have purchased, there are several icons that reference links (videos, journal articles) to additional content. Though the electronic edition links are not live, all content referenced may be accessed at . This URL is referenced at several points throughout your electronic edition.
A Note from the Authors
We write this book at a time when democracy seems under assault not only abroad but also at home. At no time in the last seven decades have there been so many challenges posed to fundamental political practices and institutions that have long gone unquestioned. Students need answers and a sophisticated understanding of how democracy works and why the nation adopted the practices now in place.
Understanding American politics involves much more than knowing the facts. It also requires understanding the causal connections in politics. From these connections, students can see how and why the decisions and actions of government officials matter to them. We have tried in this text to help students understand why politics and government institutions have developed as they have in the United States and to see the effects of our politics in things that they care about.
The three of us have been teaching American politics for more years than we want to count, and we have found that students are curious about the connections between things. They especially want to understand why we do the things we do and in the ways we do them. Our twin strategies to help students understand American politics include an analysis of its historical development and comparisons with the politics of other countries. We use both history and comparison as analytic devices—this book is neither a history of American politics nor a study of comparative politics, but both perspectives shed important light on American politics today.
In this spirit, causal connections run throughout the book. We use comparison and historical development to meet students’ needs and to motivate them—not to fill a niche for comparativists or specialists in American political development. This is, at heart, a straight-ahead introduction to American politics, but one that adds essential context. In other words, we take seriously students’ desire to understand why our system operates the way it does and its consequences for democracy.
Our experience is that many introductory American government texts are cluttered with boxes and features. This book minimizes all but the most important. We integrate most of our features—notably the bookends of each chapter, “Perspective” and “Consequences for Democracy”—into the text itself because they are so central to our presentation. In each chapter, “Perspective” and “Picture Yourself” present historical and comparative perspectives on the distinctive characteristics of American politics discussed in that chapter.
Students appreciate course materials that help them learn and truly understand difficult concepts. We have sought to write a book worth reading and not only cover the basics. We have challenged ourselves in writing American Democracy in Context and we want to challenge students, in the best sense of that word, to arrive at a better appreciation and a deeper understanding of how and why American politics matters. We have enjoyed working together on this project. We hope that you and your students will find similar pleasure from using it.
John Maltese, Joe Pika, and Phil Shively
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the many people at CQ Press who have worked with us on this project. Monica Eckman lured us in (again) and saw us through the early stages of this project. We also thank those on the editorial and marketing side, on the production side, and on the digital side who helped us bring it to completion. Special thanks to Sarah Calabi for the countless hours she spent helping us revise the text, and to Erin Livingston for her expert copyediting. We are also grateful to the staff members at our respective universities who helped with the original edition. Above all, we are grateful to our families, who tolerated our long and erratic periods of work on this project. American Democracy in Context is a project we believe in that has lured even retirees back into the harness. We are proud of the results—written through sickness and health—and grateful to those who prodded us to make it better, even though we sometimes resisted. Most of all, we are grateful to our students, whose curiosity was and remains contagious.
The authors would also like to thank the instructors who have contributed their valuable feedback through reviews of this text:
Shannon Lynn Bridgmon, Northeastern State University
Amanda Friesen, Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Brian M. Harward, Allegheny College
James Edward Monogan III, University of Georgia
Patrick Moore, Richland College
Noel A.D. Thompson, Tuskegee University
Laura Wood, Tarrant County College
John Maltese, Joe Pika, and Phil Shively
About the Authors
John Anthony Malteseis the associate dean of the school of public and international affairs and the Albert B. Saye professor of political science at the University of Georgia. His books include The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees (winner of the C. Herman Pritchett Award), Spin Control: The White House Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News, and, with Joseph A. Pika and Andrew Rudalevige, The Politics of the Presidency, currently in its tenth edition. He is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and was named a Georgia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He writes about classical music in his spare time, for which he has won a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.Joseph A. Pikais the James R. Soles professor of political science and international relations emeritus at the University of Delaware, where he was recognized for excellence in teaching, advising, and service, the latter including seven years on the State Board of Education. Professor Pika’s areas of research include the American presidency and vice presidency, Delaware politics, and education policy. He has published multiple editions of Politics of the Presidency (the tenth edition, coauthored with John Maltese and Andrew Rudalevige, was published by CQ Press in Winter 2019), Confrontation and Compromise: Presidential and Congressional Leadership, 2001–2006 (with Jason Mycoff, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), and The Presidential Contest (with Richard Watson, CQ Press, 1996). He is an avid sports fan and political activist.W. Phillips