Promise and Performance of American Democracy, with an In-Depth Analysis of the 1980 Presidential Co

Jon R. Bond, professor of political science at Texas A&M University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research analyzes the policy-making process and the operation of democracy in American politics. Professor Bond has published articles on presidential-congressional relations, congressional elections, and public policy in the discipline's major journals. He is coauthor of THE PRESIDENT IN THE LEGISLATIVE ARENA, and coeditor of POLARIZED POLITICS: CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT IN A PARTISAN ERA, and INSTITUTIONAL GAMES AND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT. In 1987 and 1988, Dr. Bond was An APSA Congressional Fellow, working on the staffs of Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Representative Norman Mineta. He has served as coeditor of the JOURNAL OF POLITICS, and as president of the Southern Political Science Association, the oldest regional political science association, and Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society.

Kevin Smith, Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in the fields of biology and politics, public policy, and American politics. He is the coauthor of THE PUBLIC POLICY THEORY PRIMER (Westview Press, 2009), PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: POWER AND POLITICS IN THE FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT (Oxford University Press, 2006), and of numerous articles that have appeared in SCIENCE, THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, THE JOURNAL OF POLITICS, POLITICAL RESEARCH QUARTERLY, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, and other journals.