Combining timeless readings with cutting-edge articles and essays, Principles and Practice of American Politics, Seventh Edition, enriches students’ understanding of the American political system by examining the strategic behavior of key players in U.S. politics. This collection of classic and contemporary readings brings concepts to life by providing students with real examples of how political actors are influenced by the strategies of others and are governed by the Constitution, the law, and institutional rules. Carefully edited by award-winning authors Samuel Kernell and Steven S. Smith, each reading is put into context to help students understand how political actions fall within a major national political forum.
New to the Seventh Edition
Samuel Kernell is distinguished emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1977. Kernell’s research interests focus on the presidency, political communication, and American political history. His books include Veto Rhetoric: A Leadership Strategy for Divided Government; Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 4th edition; Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, 2nd edition (with Gary C. Jacobson); and Party Ballots, Reform, and the Transformation of America’s Electoral System (with Erik J. Engstrom). He has also edited Parallel Politics: Economic Policymaking in Japan and the United States; The Politics of Divided Government (with Gary W. Cox); and James Madison: The Theory and Practice of Republican Government. He is presently writing an intellectual biography of James H. Rowe.
Steven S. Smith is professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. He also is the Kate M. Gregg Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences and former Director of the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University. In addition to Wash U, he has been on the faculties of the University of Minnesota, George Washington University, and Northwestern University, and was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author or coauthor of Politics Over Process: Partisan Conflict and Post-Passage Processes in the U.S. Congress (2017), The American Congress (10 editions, 1995-2019), The Senate Syndrome: The Evolution of Parliamentary Warfare in the Modern U.S. Senate (2014), Party Influence in Congress (2007), The Politics of Institutional Choice: The Formation of the Russian State Duma (2001), Politics or Principle: Filibustering in the United States Senate (1997), Call to Order: Floor Politics in the House and Senate (1989), Managing Uncertainty in the House of Representatives: Adaptation and Innovation in Special Rules (1988), Committees in Congress (1984, 1990, 1997).