Publisher's Synopsis
Divided into eight parts, the book examines the US political system from an historical and institutional framework, discussing both the mechanics of American government and domestic and foreign policy. The text moves from examination of the constitutional and historical foundations of US government, through the representative process, to a discussion of the legislative, executive and judicial system. A further section deals in depth with several key policy studies. Each section is packed with pedagogical features and the book is attractively designed. This is the definitive textbook on American studies. *Unprecedented depth and detail on the contexts of American politics - constitutional, historical, economic and social. *Greater depth than other books on the traditional key topics such as the presidency, the Congress and the judiciary, with each of these having two chapters devoted to them. *Includes detailed chapters on important policy issues such as foreign policy, abortion and affirmative action, which enable students to better understand how institutions operate in practice.;*A building block approach where students are given the very basic concepts as a foundation for harder concepts to follow. *Packed with pedagogical features such as boxes, illustrations, tables, chapter summaries and discussion points to make the absorption of the material easier.
