The Logic of American Politics
- Samuel Kernell - University of California, San Diego, USA
- Gary C. Jacobson - University of California, San Diego, USA
- Thad Kousser - University of California, San Diego, USA
- Lynn Vavreck - University of California, Los Angeles, USA
American Government and Politics
Why does the American political system work the way it does?
Find the answers in The Logic of American Politics. This best-selling text arms students with a toolkit of institutional design concepts—command, veto, agenda control, voting rules, and delegation—that help them recognize how the American political system was designed and why it works the way it does. The authors build students' critical thinking through a simple yet powerful idea: politics is about solving collective action problems.
Thoroughly updated to account for the most recent events and data, the Ninth Edition explores the increase in political polarization, the growing emotional involvement people have to politics, Americans’ reactions to changing demographics, the partisan politics of judicial selection, and the changing nature of presidential leadership. Revised to include the 2018 election results and analysis, this edition provides students with the tools they need to make sense of today’s government.
A Complete Teaching and Learning Package
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Included in the interactive eBook! SAGE Premium Video boosts comprehension and bolsters analysis— featuring animations of basic American government concepts and recent news clips connected to key topics in the book. Preview a video about voter turnout.
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CQ Press Lecture Spark
Designed to save you time and ignite student engagement, these free weekly lecture launchers focus on current event topics tied to key concepts in American government. Access this week’s topic.
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- assignable SAGE Premium Video (available via the interactive eBook version, linked through SAGE coursepacks) that is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life, featuring:
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- comprehensive, downloadable, easy-to-use Media Guide in the coursepack for every video resource, listing the chapter to which the video content is tied, matching learning objective(s), a helpful description of the video content, and assessment questions
- “Topics in American Government” videos that recap the fundamentals of American politics in every chapter—from the Bill of Rights to voter turnout to the powers of the presidency
- News Clips from the Associated Press that bring extra coverage of current events into the book, connecting multiple, brief 2- to 4-minute news clips to core American government chapter content
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- all tables and figures from the textbook;
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“An excellent textbook that has a unique approach and covers the American Politics in greater depth than other textbooks.”
“This text provides a concise framework beginning with the concept of collective action that facilitates student understanding of political development and processes in a meaningful way.”
“It’s the perfect textbook for our needs – emphasis on institutions, with a great mix of primary documents, history, and political theory. It covers all the bases – in a way that is effective for student learning (and it is fun to teach)."
“The Logic of American Politics uses rational choice theory to provide a theoretical basis for the study of American government. It is very good for showing students what political scientist do, and why government acts like it does."
“It is introductory American Politics textbook covering all the main issues in American Politics. It has a good layout that can keep the student interest without getting gimmicky."
