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Author: Bruce Ian Oppenheimer
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 428
ISBN-13: 9780814209158
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDrawing on diverse methodologies, this book's synthesizing work will be essential reading for all scholars of U.S. politics. The chapters are written by leading congressional scholars and cover topics including representation, elections, committees, party leadership, policy influence, and constitutional powers."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Mugambi Jouet
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2017-04-03
Total Pages: 373
ISBN-13: 0520966465
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy did Donald Trump follow Barack Obama into the White House? Why is America so polarized? And how does American exceptionalism explain these social changes? In this provocative book, Mugambi Jouet describes why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, Jouet then lived in the Bible Belt, Manhattan, and beyond. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, he wields his multicultural sensibility to parse how the intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. While exceptionalism once was a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts. They also shed light on the intriguing ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, a visceral suspicion of government, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than the rest of the Western world—Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Exceptional America dissects the American soul, in all of its peculiar, clashing, and striking manifestations.
Author: Daniel Wirls
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: 2021-09-23
Total Pages: 317
ISBN-13: 0813946913
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this lively analysis, Daniel Wirls examines the Senate in relation to our other institutions of government and the constitutional system as a whole, exposing the role of the "world’s greatest deliberative body" in undermining effective government and maintaining white supremacy in America. As Wirls argues, from the founding era onward, the Senate constructed for itself an exceptional role in the American system of government that has no firm basis in the Constitution. This self-proclaimed exceptional status is part and parcel of the Senate’s problematic role in the governmental process over the past two centuries, a role shaped primarily by the combination of equal representation among states and the filibuster, which set up the Senate’s clash with modern democracy and effective government and has contributed to the contemporary underrepresentation of minority members. As he explains, the Senate’s architecture, self-conception, and resulting behavior distort rather than complement democratic governance and explain the current gridlock in Washington, D.C. If constitutional changes to our institutions are necessary for better governance, then how should the Senate be altered to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? This book provides one answer.
Author: John McCain
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2019-05-21
Total Pages: 416
ISBN-13: 1501178024
DOWNLOAD EBOOK#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “History matters to McCain, and for him America is and was about its promise. The book is his farewell address, a mixture of the personal and the political. ‘I have loved my life,’ he writes. ‘All of it.’ The Restless Wave is a fitting valedictory for a man who seldom backed down.” —The Guardian (US) “A book-length meditation on what it means to face the hard challenges of long life and the sobering likelihood of imminent death…A reflection on hardship, a homily on purpose, a celebration of life — and a challenge to Americans to live up to their values and founding principles at a time when both are in jeopardy.” —The Boston Globe In this candid political memoir from Senator John McCain, an American hero reflects on his life and what matters most. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here. Maybe I’ll have another five years…Maybe I’ll be gone before you read this. My predicament is, well, rather unpredictable. But I’m prepared for either contingency, or at least I’m getting prepared. I have some things I’d like to take care of first, some work that needs finishing, and some people I need to see. And I want to talk to my fellow Americans a little more if I may.” So writes John McCain in this inspiring, moving, frank, and deeply personal memoir. Written while confronting a mortal illness, McCain looks back with appreciation on his years in the Senate, his historic 2008 campaign for the presidency against Barack Obama, and his crusades on behalf of democracy and human rights in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Always the fighter, McCain attacks the spurious nationalism and political polarization afflicting American policy. He makes an impassioned case for democratic internationalism and bi-partisanship. He recalls his disagreements with several presidents, and minces no words in his objections to some of President Trump's statements and policies. At the same time, he tells stories of his most satisfying moments of public service and offers a positive vision of America that looks beyond the Trump presidency. The Restless Wave is John McCain at his best.
Author: Dick Cheney
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2015-09-01
Total Pages: 352
ISBN-13: 1501115448
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA new book by former Vice President and #1 New York Times bestselling author Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney.
Author: Hilde Eliassen Restad
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-12-17
Total Pages: 322
ISBN-13: 1135048584
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow does American exceptionalism shape American foreign policy? Conventional wisdom states that American exceptionalism comes in two variations – the exemplary version and the missionary version. Being exceptional, experts in U.S. foreign policy argue, means that you either withdraw from the world like an isolated but inspiring "city upon a hill," or that you are called upon to actively lead the rest of the world to a better future. In her book, Hilde Eliassen Restad challenges this assumption, arguing that U.S. history has displayed a remarkably constant foreign policy tradition, which she labels unilateral internationalism. The United States, Restad argues, has not vacillated between an "exemplary" and a "missionary" identity. Instead, the United States developed an exceptionalist identity that, while idealizing the United States as an exemplary "city upon a hill," more often than not errs on the side of the missionary crusade in its foreign policy. Utilizing the latest historiography in the study of U.S. foreign relations, the book updates political science scholarship and sheds new light on the role American exceptionalism has played – and continues to play – in shaping America’s role in the world. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of US foreign policy, security studies, and American politics.
Author: Peter H Schuck
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2009-04-07
Total Pages: 721
ISBN-13: 0786745487
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat is America? Is it a hegemonic superpower, composed of ruthlessly selfish capitalists? Or is it a land of hope and glory, a shelter for the huddled masses, and a beacon of freedom and enlightenment? The definition of this complex nation has been debated substantially, yet all seem to agree on one thing: it is unique. The idea of an exceptional America can be traced all the way back to Alexis de Tocqueville's nineteenth-century observations of a newly formed democracy that seemed determined to distinguish itself from the rest. Little, it seems, has changed. Building on de Tocqueville's concept of American exceptionalism, this collection of essays, contributed by some of the nation's top scholars and thinkers, takes on the weighty task of sizing up America in a way its people and others can comprehend. Far more than simple history, they outline the current state of American institutions and policies -- from the legal system to marriage to the military to the Drug War -- and anticipate where these are headed in the future.
Author: Michael Ignatieff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2009-01-10
Total Pages: 360
ISBN-13: 1400826888
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWith the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, the most controversial question in world politics fast became whether the United States stands within the order of international law or outside it. Does America still play by the rules it helped create? American Exceptionalism and Human Rights addresses this question as it applies to U.S. behavior in relation to international human rights. With essays by eleven leading experts in such fields as international relations and international law, it seeks to show and explain how America's approach to human rights differs from that of most other Western nations. In his introduction, Michael Ignatieff identifies three main types of exceptionalism: exemptionalism (supporting treaties as long as Americans are exempt from them); double standards (criticizing "others for not heeding the findings of international human rights bodies, but ignoring what these bodies say of the United States); and legal isolationism (the tendency of American judges to ignore other jurisdictions). The contributors use Ignatieff's essay as a jumping-off point to discuss specific types of exceptionalism--America's approach to capital punishment and to free speech, for example--or to explore the social, cultural, and institutional roots of exceptionalism. These essays--most of which appear in print here for the first time, and all of which have been revised or updated since being presented in a year-long lecture series on American exceptionalism at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government--are by Stanley Hoffmann, Paul Kahn, Harold Koh, Frank Michelman, Andrew Moravcsik, John Ruggie, Frederick Schauer, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Carol Steiker, and Cass Sunstein.
Author: Steven Mulroy
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Published:
Total Pages: 176
ISBN-13: 1788117514
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRecent U.S. elections have defied nationwide majority preference at the White House, Senate, and House levels. This work of interdisciplinary scholarship explains how “winner-take-all” and single-member district elections make this happen, and what can be done to repair the system. Proposed reforms include the National Popular Vote interstate compact (presidential elections); eliminating the Senate filibuster; and proportional representation using Ranked Choice Voting for House, state, and local elections.
Author: Lawrence C. Dodd
Publisher: CQ Press
Published: 2016-12-16
Total Pages: 614
ISBN-13: 1506328806
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFor almost four decades, the editors of Congress Reconsidered, Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer have delivered the best contemporary work from leading congressional scholars in a form that is both analytical and accessible. The tradition continues in this Eleventh Edition as contributing authors focus on the many ways Congress has changed over time and examine the conditions that foster these developments. Some of the most noted names in congressional studies address topics from broad dynamics affecting the institution, elections and constituencies, parties and internal organization, inter-branch relations, and policymaking. This new edition also ends with a capstone chapter on the milestone 2016 elections. Simply put, this bestselling volume remains on the cutting edge of scholarship, identifying patterns of change in Congress and placing those patterns in context.
