The State of American Politics / Edition 200

by Byron E. Shafer Hawkins Chair of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, James A. Barnes, Michael Barone, Michael G. Hagen, Kathleen Hall Jamieson director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania

Overview

Election 2000: Aberration or paradigm? The essays in this innovative volume, combining scholarly and journalistic views, seek to place the extraordinary events of the 2000 presidential election into context with the trends of electoral politics before and after. Originally presented as a series of public lectures at Oxford University, this volume benefits from an international perspective, a stellar lineup of contributors, and a remarkably cohesive analysis that lays the election results (and thus, the current state of American politics) at the feet of a persistent American cultural divide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742517639
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/25/2002
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.24(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Byron E. Shafer is the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Politics and Society
Chapter 2 The Bush Nation and the Gore Nation
Chapter 3 The Search for a New Center
Part 4 Elite Strategies and Mass Publics
Chapter 5 The Invisible Primary and the Hidden Campaign
Chapter 6 Dynamics of the 2000 Campaign
Part 7 Governmental Institutions
Chapter 8 The Presidential Transition into a Fifty-Fifty Government, and Beyond
Chapter 9 The U. S. Congress in 2001: Representation and Process
Chapter 10 Judicial Activism, 1950 to 2000
Part 11 Afterword
Chapter 12 How Divided is America?

Editorial Reviews

More than any recent presidential election, the 2000 contest defied conventional wisdom and demanded explanation. Byron Shafer has filled that bill in characteristically lucid style. More than that, by the trenchant commentaries he has collected in The State of American Politics, Professor Shafer has managed to convert that cockamamie election we all endured into a tool for making sense of our whole disordered political process.

Robert Shogun

This excellent, compact book contains eight articles by political scientists and journalists. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above.

Choice Reviews

The central strength of this admirable edited collection is its vivid but concise depiction of the main features of recent American politics, captured through a focus on the 2000 elections...an impressively lucid and clear analysis.

Political Studies Review

The central strength of this admirable edited collection is its vivid but concise depiction of the main features of recent American politics, captured through a focus on the 2000 elections...an impressively lucid and clear analysis.

Political Studies Reviews

This excellent, compact book contains eight articles by political scientists and journalists. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above.

Choice

This excellent, compact book contains eight articles by political scientists and journalists. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above.

CHOICE

This collection of eight essays, based on a series of public lectures presented at Oxford U. in early 2001, examines events of the 2000 presidential election as a reflection of American government and politics in general. Ten contributing scholars and journalists, from the U.S. and Canada, consider the interaction between contemporary American society and politics, elite strategists and their attempts to gain the support of government and the mass public, and the influence of the three major institutions<-->the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court<-->on national government. Shafer teaches political science at the U. of Wisconsin, Madison. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

More than any recent presidential election, the 2000 contest defied conventional wisdom and demanded explanation. Byron Shafer has filled that bill in characteristically lucid style. More than that, by the trenchant commentaries he has collected in The State of American Politics, Professor Shafer has managed to convert that cockamamie election we all endured into a tool for making sense of our whole disordered political process.

Robert Shogan