Republic at Risk: An Introduction to American Politics - Hardcover

Stone, Walter J.; McCann, James A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1108487750 ISBN 13: 9781108487757

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2021

Synopsis

When people have the freedom to further their own personal interests in politics, the results may be disastrous. Chaos? Tyranny? Can a political system be set up to avoid these pitfalls, while still granting citizens and politicians the freedom to pursue their interests? Republic at Risk is a concise and engaging introduction to American politics. The guiding theme is the problem of self-interest in politics, which James Madison took as his starting point in his defense of representative government in Federalist 10 and 51. Madison believed that unchecked self-interest in politics was a risk to a well-ordered and free society. But he also held that political institutions could be designed to harness self-interest for the greater good. Putting Madison's theory to the test, the authors examine modern challenges to the integrity and effectiveness of US policy-making institutions, inviting readers to determine how best to respond to these risks.

About this title

About the Authors

Walter J. Stone is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of California, Davis. He has taught the introductory American politics course for more than four decades at Davis, Grinnell College, and the University of Colorado. He is the author of Candidates and Voters (Cambridge 2017) and, with Ronald B. Rapoport, Three's a Crowd (The University of Michigan Press, 2005).

James A. McCann is Professor of Political Science at Purdue University, where he has taught courses on American politics since 1991. He is the author of many articles on U.S. politics and has previously published two books. The most recent, with Michael Jones-Correa, is Holding Fast: Resilience and Civic Engagement among Latino Immigrants (Russell Sage Foundation, 2020).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108487750
• ISBN 13: 9781108487757
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 280