The enduring debate: classic and contemporary readings in American politics

I. The constitutional system. 1. Political culture. From The Liberal tradition in America: an interpretation of American political thought since the Revolution / Louis Hartz From The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 / Gordon S. Wood "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: the multiple traditions in America" / Rogers M. Smith Debating the issues: The role of religion in American politics. The third Bush-Kerry Presidential debate / George W. Bush and John F. Kerry "Faith, hope and clarity" / Robert Wright "Religious, and right: faith belongs in politics" / Steven Waldman 2. Constructing the government: the founding and the Constitution. "The nature of American constitutionalism," from The Origins of the American Constitution / Michael Kammen The Federalist, No. 15 / Alexander Hamilton The Federalist, No. 51 / James Madison Debating the issues: an economic interpretation of the Constitution. From An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States / Charles A. Beard From Charles Beard and the Constitution: a critical analysis of "An economic interpretation of the Constitution / Robert E. Brown 3. Federalism. The Federalist, No. 26 / James Madison From The Price of Federalism / Paul Peterson "The Framers' Design / Jonathan H. Adler Debating the Issues: The future of federalism. Speech at James Madison University / Clarence Thomas "American federalism: half-full or half-empty?" / Martha Derthick "Real-life federalism" / Donald F. Kettl 4. The constitutional framework and the individual: civil liberties and civil rights. "The perpetuation of our political institutions" / Abraham Lincoln "Letter from Birmingham jail" / Marin Luther KIng, Jr. "In defense of prejudice" / Jonathan Rauch Debating the issues: Civil liberties and the fight against terror. "Rights in an insecure world: Why national security and civil liberty are complements" / Deborah Pearlstein "The PATRIOT Act without tears: understanding a mythologized law" / Andrew C. McCarthy II. Institutions. 5. Congress: the first branch. From Congress: The electoral connection / David R. Mayhew "Reelection tips for legislators" / Ron Faucheux "Too much of a good thing: more representative is not necessarily better" / John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse Debating the issues: Pork barrel politics. From The Pig Book - Citizens against government waste "Rolling out the pork barrel" / Sean Paige "Roll out the barrel: the case against the case against pork" / Jonathan Cohn

6. The President: from chief clerk to chief executive. "The power to persuade,: from Presidential Power / Richard Neustadt "Perspectives on the Presidency," from The Presidency in a separated system / Charles O. Jones Debating the issues: Presidential mandates. "Why Bush won: a look at the numbers, what they really mean and what happens next" / Jann S Wenner "Popular fiction" / Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson "Misunderestimated" / William Kristol 7. Bureaucracy in a democratic system. "The study of administration" / Woodrow Wilson From Bureaucracy: What government agencies do and why they do it / James Q. Wilson Debating the issues: reforming the National Security bureaucracy. From The 9/11 Commission Report- National Commission on terrorist attacks upon the United States "Pentagon balking at intel reform recommendations" / Joe Pappalardo "Worlds apart" / Siobhian Gorman 8. The Federal Judiciary. The Federalist, No.78 / Alexander Hamilton "The court in American life," from Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American politics / David O'Brien "Overruling the court" / Leon Friedman Debating the issues: Interpreting the Constitution: originalism or a living constitution? "Common-law courts in a civil-law system: the role of United States Federal courts in interpreting the Constitution and laws" / Antonin Scalia "Our Democratic constitution" / Stephen Breyer III. Political behavior: Participation. 9. Public opinion and the mass media. "Polling the public," from Public Opinion in a democracy / George Gallup "Choice words: If you cant understand our poll questions, then how can we understand your answers?" / Richard Morin "The not-so-swift mainstream media" / Jonathan V. Last Debating the issues: Is own media desirable or possible? "Media bias and the culture wars" / Robert J. Bresler "The seraph for objectivity in journalism" / Howard A. Myrick "Rethinking objective journalism" / Brent Cunningham 10. Elections and voting. "The voice of the people: an echo," from The Responsible electorate / V.O. Key,Jr. "Power to the voters" / Richard D. Parker "The unpolitical animal: how political science understands voters" / Louis Menand Debating the issues: Voter fraud or voter suppression? "Run-up to election exposes widespread barriers to voting" / People for the American Way "Make way for election moth: the Floridafication of our political waters continues unabated" / John H. Fund 11. Political parities. "The decline of collective responsibility in American politics" / Morris P. Fiorina "Parliamentary government in the United States?" from The State of the Parties / Gerald M. Pomper "Needed: a political theory for the new era of coalition government in the United States" / James L. Sundquist Debating the issues: Red America, Blue American: myth or reality? "Inside red-and-blue America" / Liz Marlantes "What culture wars? Debunking the myth of a polarized America" / Morris P. Fiorina

12. Groups and interests. "Political Association in the United States," from Democracy in America / Alexis De Tocqueville

"The logic of collective action," from The rise and decline of nations / Mancur Olson

"Associations without members" / Theda Skocpol

Debating the issues: Was Madison right? The Federalist, No. 10 / James Madison

"The group basis of politics: notes for a theory" / Earl Latham

"The hyperpluralism trap" / Jonathan Rauch

IV. Public policy. 13. Politics and policy. "The science of muddling through" / Charles E. Lindblom

"American business, public policy, case studies, and political theory" / Theodore J. Lowi

"The human factor: should the government put a price on your life?" / Jim Holt

Debating the issues: Regulating risk: government intrusion or protecting society?

What is acceptable risk?" / Roger Scruton

"The case for more regulation" / Nurith C. Aizenman

14. Government and the economy. "Call for federal responsibility" / Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Against the proposed New Deal" / Herbert Hoover

"The GDP myth: why 'growth' isn't always a good thing" / Jonathan Rowe and Judith Silverstein

Debating the issues: How to reduce the Federal budget deficit. "How to balance the budget" / Alice M. Rivlin and Isabel V. Sawhill

"Restrain runaway spending with a Federal taxpayers' Bill of Rights" / Brian M. Riedl

15. Government and society. "Growing American inequality: sources and remedies" / Gary Burtless

"Objections to these unions" / Jonathan Rauch

"Providing social security benefits in the future: a review of the social security system and plans to reform it" / David C. John

Debating the issues: Health care reform. "The necessity of free-market prices for medical care" / Robert P.Gervais, M.D.

"Bringing true competitiveness to health care" / Nina Owcharenko

"Now can we talk about health care? The crisis that never went away has become only more complicated" / Hillary Rodham Clinton

16. Foreign policy and world politics. "The age of open society" / George Soros

"Reality check" / Peter D. Sutherland

Debating the issues: Foreign policy: the war in Iraq. "The Holocaust shrug: Why is there so much indifference to the liberation of Iraq?" / David Gelernter

"What went wrong? The miscalculations and missteps that led to the current situation in Iraq" / Richard Lowry

"Baghdad year zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia / Naomi Klein

Appendix. Marbury v. Madison (1803)

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Barron v. Baltimore (1833) - -Roe v. Wade (1973)

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)

United States v. Nixon (1974)

United States v. Lopez (1995)

The Declaration of Independence

The Constitution of the United States of America

Amendments to the Constitution.