The nation is suffering from debilitating and polarizing partisanship. Conservative and Liberal factions want more power for themselves and seek to deprive their political opponents of power. The rancor of modern political debate reflects a growing failure of basic governance. Restoring balance, compromise and rationality to the U.S. government can be permanently achieved only by making revisions to the Constitution via a new constitutional convention (or convention of states), as provided...

The nation is suffering from debilitating and polarizing partisanship. Conservative and Liberal factions want more power for themselves and seek to deprive their political opponents of power. The rancor of modern political debate reflects a growing failure of basic governance. Restoring balance, compromise and rationality to the U.S. government can be permanently achieved only by making revisions to the Constitution via a new constitutional convention (or convention of states), as provided...

The nation is suffering from debilitating and polarizing partisanship. Conservative and Liberal factions want more power for themselves and seek to deprive their political opponents of power. The rancor of modern political debate reflects a growing failure of basic governance. Restoring balance, compromise and rationality to the U.S. government can be permanently achieved only by making revisions to the Constitution via a new constitutional convention (or convention of states), as provided...

The Big Picture of U.S. National Government is a comprehensive introductory text for entry-level political science or civics courses in U.S. national government and politics at the university, community college, or advanced high school level. Written by a political scientist with over een years of practice in civics education, the book offers students a basic yet thorough overview of the history, theory, and practice of U.S. government. Reviewed for accuracy of content, ideologica...

Government agencies regulate Americans in the full range of their lives, including their political participation, their economic endeavors, and their personal conduct. Administrative power has thus become pervasively intrusive. But is this power constitutional?A similar sort of power was once used by English kings, and this book shows that the similarity is not a coincidence. In fact, administrative power revives absolutism. On this foundation, the book explains how administrative ...

Alexander Hamilton wrote that “the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution.” If only that were true. The Founding Fathers wanted the judicial branch to serve as a check on the power of the legislative and executive, and gave the Supreme Court the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution in a way that would safeguard individual freedoms. In some cases, like Brown V. Board of Education and United State...

The Constitution is one of the most revered documents in American politics. Yet this is a document that regularly places in the White House candidates who did not in fact get a majority of the popular vote. It gives Wyoming the same number of votes as California, which has seventy times the population of the Cowboy State. And it offers the President the power to overrule both houses of Congress on legislation he disagrees with on political grounds. Is this a recipe for a republic ...

This book provides a critical introduction to the history and current meaning of the United States' Constitution. It is organised around two themes: Firstly, the US Constitution is old, short, and difficult to amend. These characteristics have made constitutional 'interpretation', especially by the US Supreme Court, the primary mechanism for adapting the Constitution to ever-changing reality. Secondly, the Constitution creates a structure of political opportunities that allows political ac...

Although one of the shortest written constitutions in the world, the U.S. Constitution, designed to embody the rights, laws, and guiding principles of a diverse and ever-changing populace, remains an enduring document. Since its ratification in 1787, the Constitution has been applied to a broad range of legal and political questions and, while often the subject of much debate, continues to serve as a stalwart reminder of the country’s social and legal strides. This detailed volume breaks d...

The Constitution was designed to limit government power and protect individuals from the tyranny of majorities and interest-group politics. But those protections are meaningless without judges who are fully committed to enforcing them, and America’s judges have largely abdicated that responsibility. All too often, instead of judging the constitutionality of government action, courts simply rationalize it, as the Supreme Court did in upholding the Affordable Care Act, which represented the ...

Constitutional scholar Clint Bolick examines the importance of judicial nominations in current and future political campaigns—not just in campaigns for president but also for the senators who confirm the nominees and the governors who appoint state court judges. He offers his opinion of the framers' original intentions—that the judiciary play a robust role in curbing abuses of government power and protecting individual rights—and provides both a historical perspective and a look at the cou...

A critical edition of the book that paved the way for the democratization of American higher educationIf you have ever attended a town meeting or business lunch, or participated in a church group or department meeting, or served on a faculty senate or maybe just watched C-SPAN, then you have likely encountered Robert's Rules of Order. This critical edition of Henry M. Robert's essential guide to parliamentary procedure features the original text from 1876 ...