Democracy Under Pressure: 2002 Election Update (with InfoTrac) (Available Titles CengageNOW) - Hardcover

Cummings, Milton C.; Wise, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0534173624 ISBN 13: 9780534173623

Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing, 2002

Synopsis

DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE has provided over a million students with a comprehensive look at the fundamentals of American government. Cummings and Wise pair lively narrative with exemplary scholarship to convey a balanced, realistic sense of political history and to describe the institutions of American government. Throughout, the authors examine the theme of democracy under pressure, discussing the way democracy responds to the needs and demands of various groups over time. The text is developed around a systems approach - a framework of analysis that discusses various elements of the political process in terms of inputs and outputs - and focuses on the gap that exists between theory and reality in government today. This new edition has been updated to include the results of the 2002 congressional elections and other recent events of importance to the American political scene.

About this title

About the Author

MILTON C. CUMMINGS, JR. (Ph.D. Harvard University) is an award-winning educator who received his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. After two years of graduate study in England, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, he earned a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University. Professor Cummings worked for six years at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where he did research and writing on American government and politics. He then joined the political science faculty at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he is currently professor emeritus. At Johns Hopkins he has been honored with numerous awards. These include the George Owen Teaching Award, the Edward H. Griffin Award, and several other citations for outstanding teaching. He has also received fellowships and grants for research from the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Review

"I've used just about very text for the introduction to American government course. . . . The clarity, style, content, and pedagogy of Democracy Under Pressure ranks with the best of them - especially the grace of writing. It is far livelier than one usually finds in such text."

"The key factor why I decided to adopt past and present editions of Cummings and Wise was its readability. . . Other strengths are its stronger institutional chapters and its reliance on systems theory which I view as the best way to explain American politics. . . ."

"I really like the American Past boxes. They are relevant, interesting, sometimes humorous, and always thought-provoking."

Edition details

• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0534173624
• ISBN 13: 9780534173623
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 872