Dynamics of Democracy [antikvár]

Preface Understanding American politics is a difficult task. A quick review of the headlines of any newspaper reveals why. Take, for instance, the March 1, 1994 edition of the New York Times. The scope of issues and problems appearing on that one day ranged from "NATO Craft Down 4 Serb Warplanes Attacking Bosnia, U.S. Pilots Fire After 2 Warnings to Leave Area Are Ignored" to "Treasury Imposes New Regulations on Some Shotguns" to "Supreme Court to Consider '77 Child Pornography Law" to "New Health Plan Stresses Medicare for Uninsured" to a host of others. Without question, politics and the political system touch the lives of every American every day in a myriad of ways. But how politics and the political system operate is a mystery to many people. This book is our attempt to help college students better understand the political structures and forces that shape their lives. Approach We address the issue of government and politics by emphasizing two lessons that appear in virtually every chapter. First, politics involves conflict. The variety of interests that exist in society makes conflicts virtually inevitable. Government seeks to manage (though not necessarily resolve) some of those conflicts by creating procedures and institutions. The Constitution, for instance, establishes many of the fundamental rules that structure politics in the United States. The second lesson we emphasize is that the rules that stipulate how the government makes its decisions help determine the winners and losers in particular conflicts. Rules are not neutral. Inevitably, some participants are helped by the rules that structure the political process, while others are harmed by those rules. That is why the rules themselves are often the target of vociferous debate and why changing the rules can change the outcome of a conflict. Thus, throughout our book, we show how the rules of politics and government reflect and shape conflicts in society. Pedagogical Features You will find a number of features within the text of each chapter to facilitate learning. First, each chapter is previewed with an outiine of the main points covered in the text. These outlines provide an overview to the chapter and help students see how the various topics fit together. Second, each chapter opens with a brief story that highlights the key themes of the chapter and shows in concrete terms why they matter. Third, especially important concepts appear in the text in bold-faced print, with a definition provided in the margin. This "point of contact" approach to learning makes it easier for students to understand key points in the text because it puts the definitions where they are easiest to find. The bold-faced terms also serve as a list of core concepts for study and review. Fourth, we have placed the text of the Constitution at the end of chapter 2's discussion of the Constitution, so you can refer to it as needed. To ease your exploration of the Constitution, we have supplied marginal annotations that summarize the key points of each section.