A textbook your students will want to read. "If you would like students to understand hard political concepts, this work makes it accessible for them. By using pop culture, we can open ideological ideas and students are not bound by their own preconceived ideas." —Leah Murray, Weber State University A Novel Approach to Politics turns the conventional textbook wisdom on its head by using pop culture references to illustrate key concepts and cover recent political events. Adopters of previous editions are thanking author Douglas A. Van Belle for some of their best student evaluations to date. With this Seventh Edition, Van Belle brings the book fully up-to-date with recent events, current policy debates, international happenings, and other assorted political matters. Understanding politics requires a willingness to engage with ideas, arguments, and information that makes you uncomfortable, Van Belle takes the most tumultuous political periods in recent history head-on. Somehow, he weaves in recent movies and books into the text as he works in a solid foundation in institutions, ideology, and economics controversies into all that sizzle, which is certain to captivate students. Included with this title: LMS Cartridge: Import this title′s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don′t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Select the Resources tab on this page to learn more.
The Politics of the Texbook analyzes the factors that shape production, distribution and reception of school texts through original essays which emphasize the double-edged quality of textbooks. Textbooks are viewed as systems of moral regulation in the struggle of powerful groups to build political and cultural accord. They are also regarded as the site of popular resistance around discloding the interest underlying schoolknowledge and incorporating alternative traditions.
Our text is a comprehensive introduction to the vital subject of American government and politics. Governments decide who gets what, when, how (See Harold D. Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, [New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936]); they make policies and pass laws that are binding on all a society?s members; they decide about taxation and spending, benefits and costs, even life and death. Governments possess power?the ability to gain compliance and to get people under their jurisdiction to obey them?and they may exercise their power by using the police and military to enforce their decisions. However, power need not involve the exercise of force or compulsion; people often obey because they think it is in their interest to do so, they have no reason to disobey or they fear punishment. Above all, people obey their government because it has authority; its power is seen by people as rightfully held, as legitimate. People can grant their government legitimacy because they have been socialized to do so; because there are processes, such as elections, that enable them to choose and change their rulers; and because they believe that their governing institutions operate justly. Politics is the process by which leaders are selected and policy decisions are made and executed. It involves people and groups, both inside and outside of government, engaged in deliberation and debate, disagreement and conflict, cooperation and consensus and power struggles. In covering American government and politics, our text introduces the intricacies of the Constitution, the complexities of federalism, the meanings of civil liberties and the conflicts over civil rights; explains how people are socialized to politics, acquire and express opinions and participate in political life; describes interest groups, political parties and elections?the intermediaries that link people to government and politics; details the branches of government and how they operate; and shows how policies are made and affect people?s lives. This textbook has been used in classes at: Metropolitan College of New York, University of Central Oklahoma, Bucks County Community College, University of South Carolina? Beaufort, Delaware County Community College, Collin College? Spring Creek, Austin Community College? Northridge, Randolph College, Columbia Gorge Community College, Central Christian College, Thomas More College, Orange Coast College, San Bernardina Valley College, Southwestern College? Chula Vista, De Anza College, Shasta College, Jacksonville University, Northeastern University, University of Baltimore, Southern New Hampshire University, Seattle Central Community College, Edmonds Community College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Brazosport College, Sul Ross State University, Odessa College, California State University? Monterey Bay, University of Texas? Arlington, Chabot College, Portland Community College? Cascade, Athens High School, Dalat International School, Paradise Education Center, St. Teresa's Academy, South Broward High School, Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Ignatius College Preparatory, Henrico County Public Schools, Blue Ridge High School, Newell High School, Southern New Hampshire University, American University in Bulgaria, Miami Springs Senior High School, Seattle Central Community College, Milaca High School, Rock Canyan High School, Media Arts Collaborative Charter School, Susan E. Wagner High School, St. Monica's University, Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory.
To teach political issues such as political struggle, justice, interstate conflict, etc. educators rely mostly on textbooks and lectures. However, many other forms of narrative exist that can elevate our understanding of such issues. This innovative work seeks new ways to foster learning beyond the textbook and lecture model, by using creative and new media, including graphic novels, animated films, hip-hop music, Twitter, and more. Discussing the opportunities these media offer to teach and engage students about politics, the work presents concrete ways on how to use them, along with teaching and assessment strategies, all tested in the classroom. The contributors are dedicated educators from various types of institutions whose essays span a variety of political topics and examine how non-traditional "texts" can promote critical thinking and intellectual growth among students in colleges and universities. The first of its kind to discuss a wide range of alternative texts and media, the book will be a valuable resource to anyone seeking to develop innovative curricula and engage their students in the study of politics.
Information is crucial for candidates in political campaigns. This book, written by someone who has polled for 23 years, first focuses on the process of acquiring information during a campaign through polling. The book describes how to write questions, draw samples of voters, and conduct calling. The second major concern of the book is how to analyze results, and then interpret and present results in a way that will contribute to forming a strategy for a campaign. The book deals with the issues of biased questions and results, and why it is of no value to candidates to engage in such practices.
This major new textbook will equip students with a complete understanding of contemporary politics, state and society in the United Kingdom today. Key underlying themes include: The differences between traditional and alternative sites of power and what we mean by political the relationships between politics, society and how individuals become and remain engaged with politics the rapid transformations in contemporary social structures and their impact on social and political life the role of human agency and its significance to social and political action and movements contemporary cultural and social dislocations and their impact on some of the major contested areas of political life today. Key features include: Key concepts and issues Key theorists and writers Discussion questions Comprehensive and accessible, An Introduction to Politics, State & Society is an essential text for all undergraduate students of politics, the contemporary state, power and political sociology.
This social work book is the first of its kind, describing practical steps that social workers can take to shape and influence both policy and politics. It prepares social workers and social work students to impact political action and subsequent policy, with a detailed real-world framework for turning ideas into concrete goals and strategies for effecting change. Tracing the roots of social work in response to systemic social inequality, it clearly relates the tenets of social work to the challenges and opportunities of modern social change. The book identifies the core domains of political social work, including engaging individuals and communities in voting, influencing policy agendas, and seeking and holding elected office. Chapters elaborate on the necessary skills for political social work, featuring discussion, examples, and critical thinking exercises in such vital areas as: Power, empowerment, and conflict: engaging effectively with power in political settings. Getting on the agenda: assessing the political context and developing political strategy. Planning the political intervention: advocacy and electoral campaigns. Empowering voters Persuasive political communication. Budgeting and allocating resources. Evaluating political social work efforts. Making ethical decisions in political social work. Political Social Work is a potent reference for social work professionals, practitioners, and students seeking core political knowledge and skills to practically advance their work. For specialists and generalists alike, it solidifies political action as vital for the evolution of the field.
The ideal introductory textbook to the politics of the policymaking process This textbook uses modern political economy to introduce students of political science, government, economics, and public policy to the politics of the policymaking process. The book's distinct political economy approach has two virtues. By developing general principles for thinking about policymaking, it can be applied across a range of issue areas. It also unifies the policy curriculum, offering coherence to standard methods for teaching economics and statistics, and drawing connections between fields. The book begins by exploring the normative foundations of policymaking—political theory, social choice theory, and the Paretian and utilitarian underpinnings of policy analysis. It then introduces game theoretic models of social dilemmas—externalities, coordination problems, and commitment problems—that create opportunities for policy to improve social welfare. Finally, it shows how the political process creates technological and incentive constraints on government that shape policy outcomes. Throughout, concepts and models are illustrated and reinforced with discussions of empirical evidence and case studies. This textbook is essential for all students of public policy and for anyone interested in the most current methods influencing policymaking today. Comprehensive approach to politics and policy suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students Models unify policy curriculum through methodological coherence Exercises at the end of every chapter Self-contained appendices cover necessary game theory Extensive discussion of cases and applications
Human beings are political animals. They are also articulate mammals. How are these two aspects linked? This is a question that is only beginning to be explored. The present collection makes a contribution to the investigations into the use of language in those situations which, informally and intuitively, we call ‘political’. Such an approach is revealing not only for politics itself but also for the human language capacity. Each chapter outlines a particular method or analytic approach and illustrates its application to a contemporary political issue, institution or mode of political behaviour. As a whole, the collection aims to give a sample of current research in the field. It will interest those who are beginning to carry the research paradigm forward, as well as provide an introduction for newcomers, whether they come from neighbouring or remote disciplines or from none.
