California Politics and Government: A Practical Approach - Softcover

Gerston, Larry N.; Christensen, Terry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0534630812 ISBN 13: 9780534630812

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 2004

Synopsis

Grounded in basic political science research, yet readily accessible to undergraduates, PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE uses the title's theme as an organizing framework for studying American Politics. The promise of democracy is analyzed using four core values: Popular Sovereignty, Political Freedom, Political Equality and Majority Rule/Minority Rights and is further explored in several new features including "Living the Promise" and "Promise and Policy" boxes. The performance part of the theme is then integrated with an assessment at the end of every chapter along with a concluding policy chapter. Solid scholarship and writing makes this an ideal text not just for reading and learning, but also as an example of how political science is researched and written by the practitioners in academia.

About this title

About the Author

Larry N. Gerston, professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University, interacts with the political process as both an author and an observer. As an author, he has written eleven academic books in addition to CALIFORNIA POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT: A PRACTICAL APPROACH, including MAKING PUBLIC POLICY: FROM CONFLICT TO RESOLUTION (1983), POLITICS IN THE GOLDEN STATE (with Terry Christensen, 1984), THE DEREGULATED SOCIETY (with Cynthia Fraleigh and Robert Schwab, 1988), AMERICAN GOVERNMENT: POLITICS, PROCESS AND POLICIES (1993), PUBLIC POLICY: PROCESS AND PRINCIPLES (1987), PUBLIC POLICYMAKING IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY: A GUIDE TO CIVIC ENGAGEMENT (2002), RECALL! CALIFORNIA'S POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE (with Terry Christensen, 2004), AMERICAN FEDERALISM: A CONCISE INTRODUCTION (2007), CONFRONTING REALITY: TEN ISSUES THREATENING TO IMPLODE AMERICAN SOCIETY AND HOW WE CAN FIX IT (2009), NOT SO GOLDEN AFTER ALL: THE RISE AND FALL OF CALIFORNIA (2012), and REVIVING CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT: POLICIES TO RENEW NATIONAL COMMUNITY (2015). Gerston serves as the political analyst for NBC11, a San Francisco Bay Area television station, where he appears on a regular basis. He has written more than a 125 op-ed pieces for newspapers throughout the nation and speaks often on issues such as civic engagement and political empowerment.

Review

THE PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY incorporates the best political science scholarship in a concise and readable format that will challenge your students' preconceived notions about American politics. Regardless of whether they are cynical, patriotic or neutral, this text will provide them with the analytical tools to explore whether or not and to what extent our system functions properly.

I believe that the Bond text is superior to most of the other American Government texts in terms of content. Its strength lies in the way that it attempts to bring current empirical research on American politics into the introductory discussion of the subject. . . . Pedagogically I like the authors' focus on issues related to the promise and performance of American democracy.

The three biggest strengths of the text are: it challenges students to questions the performance of the American governmental system and asks students to engage the material at a deeper level; the text uses very good examples as hooks at the beginning of each chapter that should lead to more student interest in the text; because the text uses an approach of challenging students to assess performance the text reads less like a traditional textbook that reports only the facts (which students find less appealing).

Without exaggerating, I believe that their introduction to the concept of democratic government is the best in any introductory American Government text that I have seen.

The book has "a very contemporary focus, very alert to current development in political science, with no obvious political or ideological bias, and a thesis that can be used to provoke student discussion."

Edition details

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0534630812
• ISBN 13: 9780534630812
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176