Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election?: Debating American Electoral Politics - Softcover

Wayne, Stephen J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395954347 ISBN 13: 9780395954348

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin College Div, 2000

Synopsis

Appropriate as a supplement for American government or election courses, this text offers an overview of major issues in electoral politics. Some of the key topics examined include political participation, the role of money and the media, and the importance of political parties.Divided into nine chapters, "American Electoral Politics evaluates the degree to which American elections are democratic and suggests ways to close the gap between theory and political practice.Each chapter opens with a compelling vignette of a United States election.Pedagogy includes an end-of-chapter exercise, class discussion questions, and web site addresses for further exploration.The text offers suggested readings and an end-of-text glossary.Stephen J. Wayne is a respected presidency scholar and has advised many elected officials.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen J. Wayne is a well known author and lecturer on the American presidency. A professor of government at Georgetown University since 1988 and a Washington-based insider for almost 40 years, Wayne has written or edited 11 books, many in multiple editions, authored over 100 articles, chapters, and reviews that have appeared in professional journals, scholarly compilations, newspapers, and magazines. At Georgetown, Wayne teaches courses in the area of American government, specializing on the presidency, and psychology and politics.

Professor Wayne is frequently quoted by White House journalists, regularly appears on television and radio news shows. He lectures widely at home and aboard to international visitors, college students, federal executives, and business leaders. He has testified before Congress on the subject of presidential elections and governance and before Democratic and Republican Party advisory committees on the presidential nomination processes. He served as a consultant on presidential staffing in the United States and abroad and participated in transition projects for the National Academy of Public Administration and the Presidency Research Group.

Review

A provocative survey of the major facets of campaigns, elections, and governing. Wayne raises important questions, sifts through the evidence, and confronts readers with well-reasoned arguments about political parties, representation, participation, campaign finance, and the media. Students find this an engaging work that conveys knowledge and an appreciation of controversy, an approach that stimulates critical thinking. --- Harold Stanley, Southern Methodist University

Stephen J. Wayne's text is topical and informative. It addresses fundamental questions about the electoral process and our representative formula succinctly and with substantive research. Each chapter begins with a litany of facts that nurture debate, and each chapter summary remains concise. The text is compact yet feels comprehensive. I have had students cite information verbatim from this text and use this to analyze other work in the field. It is a worthwhile introduction to many critical questions, and it remains open-ended just enough to allow debate to flourish. --- Lance Denning, Metropolitan State College of Denver

Wayne's Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election? is not just an insightful text regarding elections in the United States, but it also provides intriguing arguments that promote increased class discussion. My students found the text very engaging, and I found that it forced them to think critically about the strengths and weaknesses of our current electoral system. --- Jewerl Maxwell, Cedarville University

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin College Div
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395954347
• ISBN 13: 9780395954348
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256