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Thinking About Political Reform: How to Fix, or Not Fix, American Government and Politics
John R. Johannes
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Description for Thinking About Political Reform: How to Fix, or Not Fix, American Government and Politics
Paperback. Num Pages: 328 pages. BIC Classification: 1KBB; JP. Category: (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 236 x 158 x 14. Weight in Grams: 472.
Thinking About Political Reform is the only genuinely comprehensive book on reforming American government and politics available to students and instructors. Covering elections, institutions, political processes, and behavior, it invites readers to go beyond the "what" of government and politics that typically is covered in both introductory and advanced American government courses to consider "what's wrong", "why", "so what", and "what if" questions, encouraging them to examine the failures and flaws of the governing process and to ponder potential solutions and their likely consequences. In addressing issues from the role of citizens to elections to the three branches of government, ... Read moreit treats both the causes and consequences of structural, procedural, and behavioral problems, offering a variety of common and sometimes not so common reform proposals that are assessed from the perspectives of political science, economics, law, journalism, and politics. The book asks readers to ground their thinking about reform in seven criteria or standards that should characterize sound democratic government in the United States, pointing out that such criteria are not always compatible and urging readers to prioritize their values before attacking reform issues. Throughout, it applies those standards and an up-to-date review of the scholarly literature and current events to the reform agenda, suggesting several approaches to evaluate, for example, the tensions between Congress and the presidency, election systems, or political parties. Each chapter offers readers specific questions to help them formulate their own views on reform and reminds them that reforms are linked; what is done to one process or institution has consequences for others. The final chapter suggests how reform might occur but cautions that ad hoc reforms are unlikely to solve underlying problems - or could make them worse -- and that, ultimately, reformers have to know which values and criteria they think are most important and then ask two questions: which of the two elective institutions - Congress or the presidency - should be dominant, and what sort of political party and electoral system best fits that choice? Unlike other reform books that focus on selected political institutions or the electoral process, Thinking About Reform covers American government from soup to nuts, providing in one highly readable volume the most complete, integrated, and current analysis of reform proposals and their consequences available today. The book complements all standard textbook treatments of American politics and can stand alone as the core for a course on political reform. Show Less
Product Details
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Place of Publication
New York, United States
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About John R. Johannes
Dr. John ("Jack") Johannes received a B.S., summa cum laude, from Marquette University, in Mathematics and Political Science, and the A.M. and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He joined the Marquette faculty in 1970, progressing to the rank of Professor of Political Science in 1984. Before coming to Villanova as Vice President for Academic Affairs (1995-2010), he chaired the ... Read morePolitical Science Department at Marquette (1980-88), was the founding Executive Director of Marquette's Bradley Institute for Democracy and Public Values (1986-88), and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1988-93). He was a visiting professor at Harvard in the summers of 1972, 1976, and 1984. Dr. Johannes served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Political Science (1982 85) and Legislative Studies Quarterly (1983-86) and was a member of the Executive Council of the Midwest Political Science Association. He has served as a member of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, the Wisconsin Legislative Council's Committee on Campaign Finance Reform, and the Radnor (Pa.) Commission on Charter Review; and currently is a commissioner of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Professor Johannes has lectured at the London School of Economics, Rice University, the University of Nebraska, and Arcadia University, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Association, the Everett Dirksen Center for the Study of Congressional Leadership, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Show Less
Reviews for Thinking About Political Reform: How to Fix, or Not Fix, American Government and Politics
I would definitely recommend it as one of the best summaries and critical evaluation of reform proposals currently available. One of the book's best points is the appreciation of how reforms interact, and how any serious reform proposal has to take this into account and also consider the consequences if only part of their reform package is actually adopted. As ... Read morethe author notes, we have got part of the package of responsible party government, but without the full adoption it doesn't seem to be working so well. There are many good insights like this throughout the text.
Taylor E. Dark III, Cal State University, Los Angeles
This book's competitive advantage is that it is more complete in its coverage of reform ideas across traditional course topics. American government courses are typically divided into three parts: foundations, politics, and institutions. This book includes chapters appropriate for all three parts of the course. There are no gaps.
Rodd Freitag, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
If you wanted to read a text that made a pretty grand attempt at uncovering and explaining a huge array of political and electoral reforms that challenges established conventions, you should read this. - Rick D. Henderson, Texas State University To my knowledge, there is nothing else out there on the market today that attempts to tackle the subject of reform in American politics in such a comprehensive and sweeping way... it also stands out in its embedding of a truly huge range of issues within a broader theoretical framework that connects quite naturally to the basic themes that are addressed in an introductory American politics course.
John P. Forren, Miami University
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