State and Local Politics: The Great Entanglement

An accurate, comprehensive and fun-to-read picture of state and local government politics. This book is unique in its informal and entertaining writing style. It covers the fundamentals that the 50 states have in common, while recognizing and accounting for the multitude of differences. Though entirely fictional, the conversations in the book are based on actual conversations or on data acquired in other ways. This book examines how the mass media covers state and local governments, explores why federal power has grown, discusses whether the election system dictates election outcomes, provides an entertaining section "How to kill a bill" to show the procedure of passing bills, and contains a unique discussion of proposals for reforming counties.

In this fifth edition, Lorch unfolds an accurate, comprehensive and fun-to-read picture of state and local governmental systems.