The american political system 2nd edition pdf download

With a rich library of assessable content, Connect makes managing assignments easier for instructors and studying more motivating and efficient for students. Connect for Political Science is an application-based assignment platform containing engaging, user-friendly tools that help students better understand and connect with the concepts and language used in the Political Science course.

Political Scientists have reported deeper critical thinking, improved student performance, and increased classroom efficiency as a result of using Connect, which includes innovative tools that are often auto-gradable.

Available within Connect, SmartBook 2. For instructors, SmartBook tracks student progress and provides insights that guide teaching strategies and advanced instruction, for a more dynamic class experience. Responding to the need for currency in the American Government course, this new Connect assignment pairs fresh content on a rolling basis with auto-grade and critical thinking questions that allow instructors to assess student understanding of the important news of the day.

Deepen understanding of how politics happens in the real word by leveraging the most popular podcasts available with our new Podcast Assignments. These assignments, allow faculty to bring context and nuance while engaging students through the storytelling power of podcasts.

New podcasts will be added each semester! Nicknamed ACT! First, students assess their understanding of content, then gather applicable political research, and lastly, critically reflect on the results. Two introductory missions have now been paired with auto-grade and critical thinking questions that harness the power of "learning by doing" right within Connect.

Additional missions are available through mhpractice. Expanded to now include engaging audio, concept clips are engaging videos that walk students through the more difficult concepts in the American government course such as the Electoral College, Supreme Court procedures, or how to evaluate a public opinion poll. Help your students consume political data in a meaningful way. Students in the American Government course now have the ability to interact with political data visualizations to gain insight into important factors that shape our political process.

Students can review electoral turnout over time or contemplate how demographic shifts in the American population will impact future elections. These interactive charts and maps are paired with auto-grade and critical thinking questions to enhance student understanding.

Complex ideas were synthesized inlanguage that was easy to understand. My only critique of the book is that the sections on Congress, the presidency, and the court system appear later on in the textbook.

My preference would be to have these topics addressed earlier on in the textbook. I did not notice anything offensive, but the textbook could be updated in the future on the topic of transgender individuals. Perhaps more specific information about the Supreme Court case regarding employment and other cases could be fleshed out. American Government 2e offers a comprehensive survey of the core aspects of the US political system.

It follows the standard layout of American Government textbooks and offers an effective and easily searchable index. It also includes a chapter on The text offers an accurate synthesis of American political scholarship and is presented in an unbiased manner. The content of the text features contemporary examples and events situated within historical and theoretical contexts.

The presentation of the material lends itself to be easily modified to accommodate changes in the political sphere. The text features sophisticated and accessible prose. The text offers a consistent presentation of terms situated within a logical and approachable framework for college students. The text can easily be consumed in small portions without sacrificing a broader understanding of the material. The text follows the standard format for American Government texts.

It is divided into five sections, which makes it easily approachable to both instructor and student. Though I had trouble accessing the PDF and online versions, it appears to have been an issue with the browser I was using at the time. There were graphics to illustrate some of the material, and it is nice that PDF and online versions are available.

I did not read the text cover to cover, but it seems largely to be free of grammatical errors. However, on the library listing page, there is a typo in the index for chapter The text did not include culturally offensive material and seemed inclusive in its examples and discussion. The text provides an accurate, informative, cost-effective option for college students. It is comparable to other American Government textbooks, and I will consider using it in my future courses.

This text, American Government 2e by Krutz and Waskiewicz, covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately beginning with the origins of each political construct, through its evolution in America, and trends into the future. The Declaration of Independence and parts of the Constitution are in the Appendices.

The content of the book is accurate. There are occasional editorial comments and examples of protests which suggest liberal criticisms of the status quo.

The content is up-to-date including most of the Trump presidency, which is helpful for students' understanding and familiarity. However, the preponderance of examples from the Obama and Trump eras will become outdated and need updates supplied by the instructor. The text is written in lucid prose with technical terminology highlighted, defined in the text, and listed again in a glossary. Examples depicting the new terms are plentiful.

The font is reader-friendly; pages are uncrowded. The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Each chapter includes an introduction, theory and history of particular governmental entity, Links to Learning credible websites, graphs, photos, documents, Insider Perspectives introducing a biography of an icon of the chapter, ways to engage in real life government , glossary, and Bibliography for Further Study including books and films.

The text is easily divisible into smaller sections that can be reordered within the course. There are chapters on media literacy, public opinion and polls, civic engagement, that might be taken separately from the actual discussion of government structure.

The topics are presented in a clear fashion. However domestic and foreign policy are rushed at the end while lobbyists and other peripheral topics enjoy a more central position. The text is free of interface issues; charts and graphics are clear and are explained and analyzed. The text is not culturally insensitive, supplying context to why the Founders created the government originally and how it has evolved.

Established in the introduction are the necessity and rationale for student interest and participation in their government. Although the disinclination students sometimes feel toward politics is examined , the many and various avenues to address grievances or engage in government enterprises are the centerpiece of the book's mission.

This book contains everything I need for intro American government classes. It is very comprehensive and covers all the necessary information. The information presented in the text book is accurate and comparable to all other books I have used on the market. The chapters are arranged in a way that makes sense to the material. The material in the book is relevant and up to date with current politics and elected officials.

The textbook is written in a way that is easy to understand. It is not overly complicated and written at the appropriate level. The consistency and cohesion of the organization of the textbook is on par with all the other material on the market.

Information is presented in a logical order. This book is easy to divide into chapters or sections that make sense for the progression of the semester. No instances of cultural insensititvity. The book addresses difficult issues in an appropriate way. This textbook covers the main topics of a course on American government.

The textbook was first published in It was updated in It contains accurate references to the Trump presidency. In terms of content, the textbook has all the chapters one normally expects from an introductory American Government textbook. This is a well put together textbook and with periodic revisions should be useful for students of American government for many years and decades to come.

I found the book to be clear and precise in its discussions and presentation of material. Particularly appropriate for an undergraduate audience. Yes, the book is internally consistent in terms of its discussion and its presentation of information. This is a particular strength of the text book from my view. I find it useful assigning my students questions based on discussions in various sections of chapters. For example, Chapter 1, Section 3 has a discussion on civic engagement along with colorful graphs and data pertaining to yr olds and their political participation.

I set up an assignment for my students to respond to a question based on the discussion in this section in an online class. The chapters are well organized and user friendly. This is another useful function to organize student assignments around. Yes, the topics are presented in logical and clear fashion. For me, this was one of the strengths of the textbook.

The clearer organization is a benefit to undergraduate students who may be taking the course as a required course. For many such students, the clarity in organization will further help clear any obstacles in understanding the political system.

I found the navigability of the textbook easy. The online navigation is exceptionally good. I have not tested it on a smartphone; however, on a computer the book is easy to navigate - to move between chapters, sections, pages, etc is easy.

I am glad to have discovered this book. An innovative inclusion is that, in addition to the standard chapter on federalism, American Government 2e also includes a separate chapter 14 on State and Local Governments. This is a welcome inclusion: Although most Americans interact far This is a welcome inclusion: Although most Americans interact far more with their state and local governments than the national government on a daily basis, historically American government courses have de-emphasized sub-national politics.

The invitation to re-introduce discussion of governors, state legislatures, city councils, and other forms of sub-national government is much appreciated. Although overall the text is quite comprehensive, one downside is that there are only two chapters on policy separated into Domestic and Foreign Policy. Even worse, most of the Domestic Policy chapter is a theoretical discussion of policy; the only substantive area that gets much coverage is budgeting and tax policy section Thus, instructors who want to cover highly salient domestic policy issues like healthcare or immigration may need to assign supplements.

The end-of-the-chapter resources are also quite good better than I've seen in many books from commercial publishers. The "Key terms" section at the end of each chapter is a great resource for students studying for multiple choice exams. The point-by-point "Summary" section is a great way for students to review the main ideas in the chapter.

Accuracy is overall quite good. As one would expect from a page book, at times there are minor issues. For example, when discussing the Boston Tea Party, the authors claim, "Today, many who do not agree with the positions of the Democratic of Republican Party have organized themselves into an oppositional group dubbed the Tea Party Elsewhere in the same chapter, the descriptions of Shays's Rebellion and the Boston Tea Party leave out important details that would help students relate the events to the broader topics under discussion.

I look at these minor issues as an opportunity for teachers to clarify in lecture, rather than deal-breaking issues. The text focuses on current events less than many commercial publishers' alternatives Keeping the Republic comes to mind.

However, it does do a nice job of considering the broader themes that characterize United States politics today.

For example, the chapter on political parties has a nice section about divided government and political polarization section 9. Overall I find the writing to be at an appropriate level for first-year college students. The "Key terms" sections at the end of each chapter will be helpful to students who aren't sure whether they understand a particular term. Overall the textbook is highly consistent. However, the editorial voice of the textbook is less clear than some alternatives from commercial publishers.

Some may view this as a benefit, as there is more room for each instructor to add their own "big story" to their courses. Others may view this as a downside, because students will have less guidance in identifying the major themes or "thesis" of the course.

Overall the organization is quite good. I like that the chapters are divided into numbered subsections, which helps give students clearer instructions when I am dividing chapters over multiple days. At the same time, I should point out that, at least in my view, the book is organized in an unconventional way.

For example, while Federalism Chapter 3 is included in the "Students and the System" section, State and Local Government comes much later in the book Chapter 14, in the "Formal Institutions" section.

In addition, the chapter on the Bureaucracy is placed in the "Outputs of Government" section alongside the chapters on domestic and foreign policy, rather than its more traditional place just after The Presidency.

Thankfully, though, the chapters are easy to move around. In my classes using the book, I have done quite a bit of rearranging. The book is available in multiple formats. Students can read individual sections or chapters online in a way vaguely reminiscent of Wikipedia , they can download a free PDF of the entire book, or more traditional students can order a hard copy of the book from Amazon at a price that's still less than half of what students might pay for a book from a commercial press.

Knowing that I would be using the book over many sections and many semesters, I ordered a copy from Amazon and I am glad I did. Overall the book is extremely well edited. Grammar is as good as one would expect from a textbook from a commercial press. While there's always room to incorporate more diversity, overall the book does a nice job.

The book does a nice job of acknowledging racial injustice at the time of the American founding, including the Three-Fifths Compromise, as well as the importance of the Civil War Amendments in beginning to correct those wrongs p. The text also does a better job than most of discussing the importance of Voter Registration in Chapter 7 Voting and Elections , including coverage of the Voting Rights Act and Shelby County v. Holder Finally, as noted earlier, the book does a nice job of showing that Congress is growing more diverse, while at the same time acknowledging the many ways that Congress is still not representative of the American public Chapter 11, Congress.

My own opinion is that the biggest shortcoming is a lack of current events coverage. In my own courses, I am going to make up for this by assigning articles from CQ Researcher.

Also, I was disappointed that I requested access to the instructor resources a few weeks ago, but as of the start of the semester I have still not received access. Instructors planning on using this book may want to request access to the instructor resources very early to avoid issues. I like the additional chapter on State and Local Government Chap Chapter 8 on the Media is the best chapter I've seen on that subject. It offers an excellent collection of concepts and ideas useful to political science students.

This is a hard aspect of any textbook. I reviewed the book for about 3 hours, and I could probably spend another 3 hours finding other "issues. According to Locke individuals held authority through a divine power that existed in the people that formed the basis for the "fountain of authority"?

Rousseau more clearly articulated the concept of Social Contract, borrowed from Locke. Your textbook makes no mention of Rousseau. Second, key terms in Chapter 17 are wanting. Third, Political Parties should precede elections in the book.

Fourth, the idea that the winner-take-all approach to election is the reason for the two-party system is a conventional and weak argument, and there are no citations to back up the text pp. Fifth, Page discusses the Electoral College as the reason for a two-party system, but the explanation given does not explain why the Electoral College is one of the main reasons why there is an entrenched two-party system.

Sixth, from pp. If the candidate fails to achieve votes, then the election is sent to the House of Representatives. Finally, there is no sufficient definition of due process anywhere in the book. I could go on, but you have some important ones. Your idea of relevance is not really relevant. Much of your textbook is solid, such as Chapter 8 on the Media. I like how you included the FCC.

But given what is currently happening with the COVID Pandemic, I would argue that the textbook remains just as relevant, even though some of your reviewers will claim otherwise. Table You can replace that space with something more relevant? The textbook is written well. I did not see too much passive tense. I would reduce the number of "in order to" and replace with "to" in many sentences. You have a solid editing staff doing well to ensure a good syntax throughout the book. The textbook is consistently outlined.

But the chapter in Foreign Affairs Chap 17 is thin and needs more meat. Where is the concept of deterrence? Other critical concepts such as "security dilemma" and "domino theory" need to be introduced. This course must give freshman students the conceptual baseline tools to advance to the next grade.

Also, the authors do not explain the Electoral College sufficiently as it relates to the 2 parties. Modularity is clearly possible in this text, although I do not think this criteria should be rated high in importance as to determining whether this is a solid textbook. Each topic by chapter is integrated with all the others in some way. The formatting of the text throughout is excellent. The choice of pictures, and subjects is excellent throughout.

The cosmetics of the book is well done. None that I could detect. I looked more at concepts and content. The textbook is ideologically neutral throughout, with one exception. It does not explain some additional reasons why the two-party system in the U.

This is probably a sensitive issue. There could be more treatment of the concept of power in the beginning of the book. There are numerous ways to define or describe political power, and they should be conveyed in the textbook. Also, where is David Hume? Madison and Hamilton cite him in the Federalist Papers.

Hume's ideas on human nature as the underlying purpose for dividing power is essential to understanding the American political system. The book covers all the main topics that good introductory American Government textbooks typically cover and also includes chapters on topics that are not covered in detail in many textbooks.

It dedicates entire chapters to state and local It dedicates entire chapters to state and local government, domestic policy, and foreign policy. Overall, the textbook provides accurate information, but there are some places where it comes up short in this regard, and a few statements made in the book are not as clear as they could be. For example, the definition of the margin of error that is provided is not technically correct, and the example that follows the definition is not correct even in a non-technical sense.

There are minor mistakes in some of the tables and figures, too. While it is rare for any textbook to be completely full of errors, there are a few more errors in this book than in my preferred American Government textbook and other leading textbooks on the topic.

In general, the content is suitably up to date, although some tables and figures should probably be updated soon. The textbook includes many illustrations, photographs, and examples that are recent enough for students to be able to relate to without much difficulty. The text is generally clear and easy to read, although it may err towards oversimplification is some places. Chapters are structured in reasonable ways.

The highlighting of key terms and the examples that are provided are helpful. I think it would be easy for me to pick and choose sections of the book to focus on and to present chapters in a customized order. As mentioned earlier, chapters are structured in reasonable ways. The structure is on par with leading texts in this area.

As mentioned earlier, the book is reasonably up to date. It includes many examples that students with a wide variety of backgrounds and characteristics should be able to relate to. Issues related to race, ethnicity, gender, and class are addressed in appropriate ways.

This is the first time that I have thoroughly reviewed an open source textbook for potential use in a course, and I was impressed by the overall quality of the book. It covers most, if not all, of the material that I typically cover in my American Government course and does so in an engaging way. It is certainly a viable option for my course. The book leans more towards describing American government than explaining it, which may be fine for many instructors, especially for an introductory course.

I do wish there was a bit more of a unified explanatory framework that was used throughout the chapters, though. At the same time, given the overall quality of this book and the money my students would save if I assigned it, I am seriously considering changing texts for the first time in over a decade. Thorough coverage of the main thematic areas generally addressed by introductory American Government textbooks. Analysis of political institutions is well-balanced with substantial attention to the role of the individual and collective action.

The content of the work is accurate and unbiased. The text effectively frames controversial topics in American politics and the reader does not come away with the impression that the author's are putting their thumbs on the scale in favor of a particular interpretation or political ideology.

The text does not run the risk of becoming obsolete in a short period of time; however, many of the examples are quite common to other introductory American Government texts. Students may struggle with somewhat dated, routine examples. In updates to this text, it may be useful to search for more contemporary illustrations of key concepts, and this would be a relatively easy fix to implement.

The writing is clear and concise. The prose is accessible, and the authors' have done an outstanding job avoiding the jargon that can unnecessarily complicate a text. The framework of the text is internally consistent.

Excellent use of sub-sections in each chapter. Learning objectives are clearly identified for each unit, and each unit concludes with a concise summary of main points followed by multiple-choice and short answer questions. The material is easily divisible. An instructor could easily rearrange the order of topics without presenting much disruption to the reader. For example, if an instructor wanted to cover formal institutions prior to individual agency and action or mediating institutions, it would not be difficult to do so using this text.

In each unit, there is a clear progression of thought from basic description of concepts toward more critical analysis. This usefully guides the reader and provides the shared language and conceptual understanding necessary for more nuanced, thoughtful analysis. The first unit of the text 'Students and the System' outlines the necessary historical context without getting too bogged down in general introduction.

The text then moves through its substantive topics in a coherent manner with useful transitions between topics. The concise introductions at the beginning of each chapter effectively frame the chapter topic. Figures and images were clear and undistorted. Display features are intuitive and not confusing to the reader.

Reviewing the text, I did not experience any significant interface issues. The writing is clear and error-free. Grammar and sentence structure are appropriate for the reading comprehension level expected in an introductory level course. The examples used throughout the text are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. The 'Insider Perspective' sections in each chapter reflect this in their profiles of diverse individuals.

The chapters on civil liberties and civil rights, in particular, demonstrate the cultural relevance of the text. This textbook is extremely comprehensive. It covers all the bases of an Introduction to American Government and then some. From the founding and Constitution to the major institutions of Congress, Courts, and the Presidency, these major areas are From the founding and Constitution to the major institutions of Congress, Courts, and the Presidency, these major areas are all covered.

Furthermore, it also includes chapters on linkage institutions like parties, interest groups, and the media. And finally, it contains both sections on individual rights and liberties as well as policy and bureaucracy. It contains every topic I cover and more in an Introductory course. The textbook is error-free and unbiased. The main framework chapters are excellent and thorough. The cited political science literature is excellent.

The more niche chapters like Public Opinion could use a freshen up on the theoretical concepts. The definition of public opinion is probably not as accurate as it could be. There is a vibrant discussion in modern research on the balance between socialization and genetics in public opinion research that should be included.

Overall, it is solid and accurate. A textbook with a framework as solid as this will not go out-of-date quickly. Nearly every chapter has classic and current concepts to understand the evolution and development of institutions.

The founding chapter and the Constitution are great chapters and will always be relevant. There are areas where graphics examples could be updated; a few of the federalism chapter charts are using data.

At the edges, the composition of Congress and descriptive representation will need to be updated. Gerrymandering and redistricting is continually evolving. The census will alter the reapportionment section on Congress and the Electoral College.

Most importantly, the emergence of Donald Trump simply alters how the institution of the presidency communicates and respects or doesn't respect past institutional norms. The "Middle Ground" feature might need to be updated as controversies change but overall this definitely a relevant textbook. Get BOOK. Campbell Author : James E. The American Campaign, Second Edition. Reporting data and predicting trends through the campaign, this classroom-tested volume offers again James E.

Delivering Collective Action: Formal Institutions. The Outputs of Government. Answer Key. Figure 1. Today, many people ignore this important means of civic engagement, while others are prevented from taking part. Chapter Outline 1. Elitism, Pluralism, and Tradeoffs. Previous Next.