State & Local Politics: Institutions & Reform: The Essentials

In this second edition of STATE AND LOCAL POLITICS: INSTITUTIONS & REFORM: THE ESSENTIALS--a concise version of their acclaimed new text--Donovan, Smith, and Mooney go beyond the purely descriptive treatment usually found in state and local texts and offer an engaging comparative approach, showing students how politics and government differ between states and communities and describing the causes and effects of those variations. In addition, the text focuses on what social scientists know about the effects of rules and institutions on politics and policy. This comparative institutional framework enables students to think more analytically about the impact of institutions on policy outcomes, asks them to evaluate the effectiveness of one institutional approach over another, and encourages them to consider more sophisticated solutions. Written by three young, high-profile specialists who have contributed significantly to the field in the last decade, the text incorporates the most recent scholarship available, giving students access to perspectives that no other textbook on the market currently provides. An abbreviated, cost-effective text, STATE AND LOCAL POLITICS: INSTITUTIONS & REFORM: THE ESSENTIALS covers the core concepts students need to gain a solid understanding of state and local government, all within ten chapters.

Todd Donovan (Ph.D., University of California, Riverside) is a professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. He teaches state and local politics; American politics, parties, campaigns, and elections; comparative electoral systems; and introductory research methods and statistics. His research interests include direct democracy, election systems and representation, political behavior, subnational politics, and the political economy of local development. He has been published extensively in academic journals; written a number of books on direct democracy, elections, institutions, and reform; and has received numerous grants and awards for his work. He is coauthor (with Ken Hoover) of THE ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC THINKING, also published by Cengage Learning.

Daniel A. Smith (PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison) is a professor of Political Science at the University of Florida and the former director of UF's Political Campaigning Program. In addition to teaching state and local politics, he offers courses on political parties and interest groups, direct democracy, and the politics of reform. He has published widely on voting rights and election law, campaign finance, direct democracy, political parties, and interests groups. He serves on the board of directors of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation (BISCF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., and is the author of several books and over 50 articles and book chapters on American politics.

Christopher Z. Mooney (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison) is the Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor of State Politics at the University of Illinois, Springfield. From 1999 to 2007, he served as the founding editor of STATE POLITICS AND POLICY QUARTERLY, the official journal of the State Politics and Policy section of the American Political Science Association. Mooney has authored dozens of books and articles related to legislative politics, morality politics, and policy diffusion. In addition, he often serves as a media commentator on state politics topics, including serving as a regular panelist on State Week in Review, a National Public Radio program broadcast statewide in Illinois. In 2010, in recognition of his scholarship and founding of SPPQ, the APSA endowed the annual Christopher Z. Mooney Award for the best PhD dissertation in the field of state politics.