American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights [Paperback]

Marc Karnis Landy (Author), Sidney M. Milkis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072383194 | ISBN-13: 978-0072383195 | Publication Date: October 2003

This exciting, concise new text takes a unique political development approach to American government courses. Written by two pre-eminent scholars of American political development, Marc Landy and Sid Milkis, the text explores American government as an entity that evolves through the debates that have occurred in American politics and political culture over time. This approach gives readers a context for understanding the growth of U.S. systems and laws, and encourages critical thinking. The give-and-take between individual rights and equality frames the discussion of each issue.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

This introductory textbook highlights the tensions and complementarities between liberalism and democracy that gave rise to the current American political system. It deals extensively with contemporary political issues and dynamics. It is the first to adopt an American Political Development approach. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Marc Landy is a Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Faculty Chair of the Irish Institute. He has a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. He is co-author with Sidney Milkis of Presidential Greatness (Kansas U. Press, 2000), and an author of The Environmental Protection Agency From Nixon to Clinton: Asking the Wrong Questions. He is an editor of Seeking the Center: Politics and Policymaking at the New Century (2001), and The New Politics of Public Policy. In addition to teaching undergraduates and graduate students, he regularly teaches public officials from Ireland and Northern Ireland about American politics through a series of executive programs run by the Irish Institute. He also teaches summer courses at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica. His recent articles include “The Bush Presidency after 9/11: Shifting the Kaleidoscope” in the inaugural issue of the E-Journal Forum; “Local Government and Environmental Policy,” in Martha Derthick ed., Dilemmas of Scale in American Federal Democracy (Cambridge U. Press, 1999); and “The Politics of Risk Reform,” co-authored with Kyle Dell, Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Fall 1999. During the 2000 presidential campaign, his op-ed articles appeared in the Boston Globe and New York Newsday, and he appeared on a wide variety of radio and television news programs.
Sidney M. Milkis is the James Hart Professor of Politics and Senior Scholar at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His books include The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the New Deal; Political Parties and Constitutional Government: Remaking American Democracy; and Presidential Greatness, co-authored with Marc Landy. His articles on American government and political history have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Studies in American Political Development, Journal of Policy History, and several edited volumes. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill College (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072383194
• ISBN-13: 978-0072383195
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,183,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent idea, mostly great, but falls a bit short, June 7, 2004

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Newsman78 "newsman78" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights (Paperback)

This textbook is a wonderful addition to the available textbooks on American government. It provides historical context lacking in most other texts, and does so in a relatively concise and well-presented manner. The American political development (APD) scholarship it's based on works well, certainly much better than the Kernell/Jacobson textbook. Their framework of democracy versus rights, however, does not come off quite so well as they would like, sometimes obscuring the larger point they are trying to make in each chapter. Sometimes the writing, in an attempt to be concise, may be a bit too dense for some students to grasp. Overall this is a great text, with the added bonus of being easy to carry around (shaped like a real book, not a huge textbook).