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784 books match the query 'American Government' and 33 start with i

cover of I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay

I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me

Essays on Rural Political Decay

Matthew Ferrence

West Virginia University Press, 2024

2025 WCoNA Book of the Year Finalist
The Best Narrative & Biography Books of 2024, Selected by Porchlight

When a progressive college professor runs for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in a deeply conservative rural district, he loses. That’s no surprise. But the story of how Ferrence loses and, more importantly, how American political narratives refuse to recognize the existence and value of nonconservative rural Americans offers insight into the political morass of our nation. 

In essays focused on showing goats at the county fair, planting native grasses in the front lawn, the political power of poetry, and getting wiped out in an election, Ferrence offers a counter-narrative to stereotypes of monolithic rural American voters and emphasizes the way stories told about rural America are a source for the bitter divide between Red America and Blue America.
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cover of Illinois Politics: A Citizen's Guide

Illinois Politics

A Citizen's Guide

James D. Nowlan, Samuel K. Gove, and Richard J. Winkel

University of Illinois Press, 2009

Considered a microcosm of the nation, the state of Illinois stretches almost four hundred miles from its northern limit at the Wisconsin line to its southern tip at Cairo, nestled between Kentucky and Missouri. Its political culture is as intriguing as the state is long.

Illinois has produced presidents and leading members of Congress. It also has a long history of political corruption, including, in recent years, the federal indictments of two consecutive governors. The population of the state is exceptionally diverse, with a significant number of new immigrants. Its political allegiance, once firmly Republican, has trended ever more Democratic. Illinois can be divided neatly into three distinct regions: Chicago, the suburban collar surrounding the city, and the ninety-five downstate counties.

Based on the research and experience of respected veterans of Illinois politics, this book shows how the government runs, how politics operates, and what obstacles and opportunities exist for change. It explains how power is exercised and how parties compete for it. For engaged citizens, scholars, and students, Illinois Politics: A Citizen's Guide is a timely and much-needed roadmap for positive change.

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cover of Illinois Politics: A Citizen's Guide to Power, Politics, and Government

Illinois Politics

A Citizen's Guide to Power, Politics, and Government

Melissa Mouritsen, Kent D. Redfield, and James D. Nowlan

University of Illinois Press, 2024

Shifting demographics. Downstate versus Chicago. Billionaires and bribery. Even veteran observers need a roadmap to track Illinois’ ever-changing political landscape. Melissa Mouritsen, Kent D. Redfield, and James D. Nowlan provide an up-to-date primer on Prairie State politics, government, and policies. Features include:

  • Discussions of recent events like the 2015-2017 budget disaster, the response to COVID-19, and the fall of longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan;
  • New chapters on corruption, social policies, and the political rules of the game;
  • Perspectives on the nuts-and-bolts of campaign funding, the ways political actors acquire power or influence, and many other topics;
  • Close examinations of complex issues like the state’s increased polarization and its ongoing fiscal recovery.

Fully revised and expanded, <i>Illinois Politics</i> blends detailed information with expert analysis to offer an essential resource for citizens, students, and public servants alike.

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cover of Imagining Politics: Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television

Imagining Politics

Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television

Stephen Benedict Dyson

University of Michigan Press, 2019

Imagining Politics critically examines two interpretations of government. The first comes from pop culture fictions about politics, the second from academic political science. Stephen Benedict Dyson argues that televised political fictions and political science theories are attempts at meaning-making, reflecting and shaping how a society thinks about its politics.

By taking fiction seriously, and by arguing that political science theory is homologous to fiction, the book offers a fresh perspective on both, using fictions such as The West Wing, House of Cards, Borgen, Black Mirror, and Scandal to challenge the assumptions that construct the discipline of political science itself.

Imagining Politics is also about a political moment in the West. Two great political shocks—Brexit and the election of Donald Trump—are set in a new context here. Dyson traces how Brexit and Trump campaigned against our image of politics as usual, and won.

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cover of Implementing Term Limits: The Case of the Michigan Legislature

Implementing Term Limits

The Case of the Michigan Legislature

Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson and Lyke Thompson

University of Michigan Press, 2017

Today, 70 percent of the American public supports reforms that would limit the number of terms a state legislator may serve, and the advocacy group U.S. Term Limits promotes this reform at all levels of government. But are advocates correct that term limits ensure citizens dedicated to the common good—rather than self-serving career politicians—run government? Or does the enforced high rate of turnover undermine the legislature’s ability to function?

In Implementing Term Limits, Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson and Lyke Thompson bring thirteen years of intensive research and 460 interviews to assess changes since Michigan’s implementation of term limits in 1993 and explore their implications. Paying special attention to term limits’ institutional effects, they also consider legislative representation, political accountability, and the role of the bureaucracy and interest groups in state legislatures.

Their thorough study suggests that legislators are less accessible to officials and that there is a larger gap between legislators and their voters. Moreover, legislators become much more politically ambitious after term limits and spend more time on political activities. The selection of top chamber leaders is complicated by newcomers’ lack of knowledge about and experience working with the leaders they elect before being sworn in. As a result, term limits in Michigan fail to deliver on many of the “good government” promises that appeal to citizens.

Implementing Term Limits makes a unique and valuable contribution to the debate over the best means by which to obtain truly democratic institutions.

 

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cover of Implementing the Endangered Species Act on the Platte Basin Water Commons

Implementing the Endangered Species Act on the Platte Basin Water Commons

David M. Freeman

University Press of Colorado, 2010

Water users of the Platte River Basin have long struggled to share this scarce commodity in the arid high plains, ultimately organizing collectively owned and managed water systems, allocating water along extensive stream systems, and integrating newer groundwater with existing surface-water uses. In 1973, the Endangered Species Act brought a new challenge: incorporating the habitat needs of four species-the whooping crane, piping plover, least tern, and pallid sturgeon-into its water-management agenda.

Implementing the Endangered Species Act on the Platte Basin Water Commons tells of the negotiations among the U.S. Department of the Interior, the environmental community, and the states of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska that took place from the mid-1970s to 2006. Ambitious talks among rival water users, environmentalists, state authorities, and the Department of the Interior finally resulted in the Platte River Habitat Recovery Program.

Documenting how organizational interests found remedies within the conditions set by the Endangered Species Act, describing how these interests addressed habitat restoration, and advancing sociological propositions under which water providers transcended self-interest and produced an agreement benefiting the environment, this book details the messy process that took place over more than thirty years. Presenting important implications for the future of water management in arid and semi-arid environments, this book will be of interest to anyone involved in water management, as well as academics interested in the social organization of common property.
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cover of In Contempt: Defending Free Speech, Defeating HUAC

In Contempt

Defending Free Speech, Defeating HUAC

Ed Yellin and Jean Fagan Yellin

University of Michigan Press, 2022

“YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to be and appear before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives of the United States, or a duly appointed subcommittee thereof, on February 10 (Monday), 1958, at ten o’clock a.m. at City Council Chambers, City Hall, Gary, Indiana, then and there to testify touching matters of inquiry committed to said committee, and not to depart without leave of said committee.”

So began a decade of hardship for Ed and Jean Yellin and their three young children as the repressive weight of the U.S. government, caught up in the throes of McCarthyism, crashed down upon their careers, their daily household budget, and their relationships to colleagues, neighbors, and their country. In Contempt is a faithful, factual testament to the enduring quality of patriotic dissent in our evolving democracy—and a loving reconstruction of what it meant to be labeled “unAmerican” for defending the Constitution.
 
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cover of Inconsistency and Indecision in the United States Supreme Court

Inconsistency and Indecision in the United States Supreme Court

Matthew P. Hitt

University of Michigan Press, 2019

The United States Supreme Court exists to resolve constitutional disputes among lower courts and the other branches of government, allowing elected officials, citizens, and businesses to act without legal uncertainty. American law and society function more effectively when the Court resolves these ambiguous questions of Constitutional law. Since lower courts must defer to its reasoning, the Court should also promulgate clear and consistent legal doctrine, giving a reason for its judgment that a majority of justices support.

Yet a Court that prioritizes resolving many disputes will at times produce contradictory sets of opinions or fail to provide a rationale and legal precedent for its decision at all. In either case, it produces an unreasoned judgment. Conversely, a Court that prioritizes logically consistent doctrine will fail to resolve many underlying disputes in law and society. Inconsistency and Indecision in the United States Supreme Court demonstrates that over time, institutional changes, lobbied for by the justices, substantially reduced unreasoned judgments in the Court’s output, coinciding with a reduction in the Court’s caseload. Hence, the Supreme Court historically emphasized the first goal of dispute resolution, but evolved into a Court that prioritizes the second goal of logically consistent doctrine. As a result, the Court today fails to resolve more underlying questions in law and society in order to minimize criticism of its output from other elites. In so doing, the modern Court often fails to live up to its Constitutional obligation.
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cover of Indecision in American Legislatures

Indecision in American Legislatures

Jeffrey J. Harden and Justin H. Kirkland

University of Michigan Press, 2018

Lawmaking provides many opportunities for proposals to be altered, amended, tabled, or stopped completely. The ideal legislator should assess evidence, update his or her beliefs with new information, and sometimes be willing to change course. In practice, however, lawmakers face criticism from the media, the public, and their colleagues for “flip-flopping.” Legislators may also only appear to change positions in some cases as a means of voting strategically.

This book presents a systematic examination of legislative indecision in American politics. This might occur via “waffling”—where a legislator cosponsors a bill, then votes against it at roll call. Or it might occur when a legislator votes one way on a bill, then switches her vote to the other side. In Indecision in American Legislatures, Jeffrey J. Harden and Justin H. Kirkland develop a theoretical framework to explain indecision itself, as well as the public’s attitudes toward indecision. They test their expectations with data sources from American state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, and survey questions administered to American citizens. Understanding legislative indecision from both the legislator and citizen perspectives is important for discussions about the quality of representation in American politics.

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cover of Independence Corrupted: How America's Judges Make Their Decisions

Independence Corrupted

How America's Judges Make Their Decisions

Charles Benjamin Schudson

University of Wisconsin Press, 2018

With experience as both a trial and appellate judge, Charles Benjamin Schudson knows the burdens on judges. With engaging candor, he takes readers behind the bench to probe judicial minds analyzing actual trials and sentencings—of abortion protesters, murderers, sex predators, white supremacists, and others. He takes us into chambers to hear judges forging appellate decisions about life and death, multimillion-dollar damages, and priceless civil rights. And, most significantly, he exposes the financial, political, personal, and professional pressures that threaten judicial ethics and independence.

As political attacks on judges increase, Schudson calls for reforms to protect judicial independence and for vigilance to ensure justice for all. Independence Corrupted is invaluable for students and scholars, lawyers and judges, and all citizens concerned about the future of America's courts.
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cover of Indiana Political Heroes

Indiana Political Heroes

Geoff Paddock

Indiana Historical Society Press, 2008

Politics has always played an important role in Indiana, and the state itself at one time furnished candidates for national office for an assortment of American political parties. From 1840, when Whig William Henry Harrison captured the White House with his “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” campaign, to 1940, when Wendell Willkie won the Republican presidential nomination and challenged incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt's try for a third term in office, approximately 60 percent of the elections had Hoosiers on a party’s national ticket. Indiana Political Heroes features essays on eight Hoosier politicians who have made a difference in Indiana and in the nation’s capital.
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cover of Information and Democratic Processes

Information and Democratic Processes

Edited by John A. Ferejohn and James H. Kuklinski

University of Illinois Press, 1990

The golden democratic tradition of an informed and involved electorate freely and rationally choosing its public officials seems to be at odds with American political reality. Thus the questions: On what basis do people vote and form opinions? How does the lack of information at the individual level affect system performance?

In this collection twenty-six distinguished political scientists discuss, debate, and define the relationship between information and the democracy it supposedly serves. The contributors address both the empirical and normative aspects of governing in the United States, employing psychological, sociological, and economic perspectives.

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cover of Information and Legislative Organization

Information and Legislative Organization

Keith Krehbiel

University of Michigan Press, 1992

In this controversial book, Keith Krehbiel investigates and casts doubt upon a view of Congress held by many academics, journalists, and members of the lay public: that Congress is organized primarily to facilitate logrolling or "gains from trade" between legislators. The author puts forward an alternative "informational" theory that, unlike previous formal theories, highlights institutional needs and individual incentives for acquiring policy expertise. Using games with incomplete information, Krehbiel derives a set of unique and testable predictions about the organization of legislatures -- including the composition of committees and the procedures under which legislation is considered.

Krehbiel's creative illustrations and nonmathematical presentation of formal theories make this book accessible to a diverse set of readers. The political relevance and testability of games with incomplete information will be appreciated by game theorists and economists, while the book's findings make it essential reading for political scientists who study American politics, political institutions, or democratic legislatures.

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cover of Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects

Initiatives without Engagement

A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects

Joshua J. Dyck and Edward L. Lascher, Jr.

University of Michigan Press, 2019

Arguments about the American ballot initiative process date back to the Progressive Era, when processes allowing citizens to decide policy questions directly were established in about half of the states.

When political scientists began to systematically examine whether the state ballot initiative process had spillover consequences, they found the initiative process had a positive impact on civic engagement. Recent scholarship casts doubt on these conclusions, determining the ballot initiative process did not make people believe they could influence the political process, trust the government, or be more knowledgeable about politics in general. However, in some circumstances, it got them to show up at the polls, and increased interest groups’ participation in the political arena. In Initiatives without Engagement, Dyck and Lascher develop and test a theory that can explain the evidence that the ballot initiative process fails to provide the civic benefits commonly claimed for it, and the evidence that it increases political participation. This theory argues that the basic function of direct democracy is to create more conflict in society.  
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cover of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign

Insecure Majorities

Congress and the Perpetual Campaign

Frances E. Lee

University of Chicago Press, 2016

As Democrats and Republicans continue to vie for political advantage, Congress remains paralyzed by partisan conflict. That the last two decades have seen some of the least productive Congresses in recent history is usually explained by the growing ideological gulf between the parties, but this explanation misses another fundamental factor influencing the dynamic. In contrast to politics through most of the twentieth century, the contemporary Democratic and Republican parties compete for control of Congress at relative parity, and this has dramatically changed the parties’ incentives and strategies in ways that have driven the contentious partisanship characteristic of contemporary American politics.
           
With Insecure Majorities, Frances E. Lee offers a controversial new perspective on the rise of congressional party conflict, showing how the shift in competitive circumstances has had a profound impact on how Democrats and Republicans interact. For nearly half a century, Democrats were the majority party, usually maintaining control of the presidency, the House, and the Senate. Republicans did not stand much chance of winning majority status, and Democrats could not conceive of losing it. Under such uncompetitive conditions, scant collective action was exerted by either party toward building or preserving a majority. Beginning in the 1980s, that changed, and most elections since have offered the prospect of a change of party control. Lee shows, through an impressive range of interviews and analysis, how competition for control of the government drives members of both parties to participate in actions that promote their own party’s image and undercut that of the opposition, including the perpetual hunt for issues that can score political points by putting the opposing party on the wrong side of public opinion. More often than not, this strategy stands in the way of productive bipartisan cooperation—and it is also unlikely to change as long as control of the government remains within reach for both parties.
 
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cover of Inside Newark: Decline, Rebellion, and the Search for Transformation

Inside Newark

Decline, Rebellion, and the Search for Transformation

Curvin, Robert

Rutgers University Press, 2014

For decades, leaders in Newark, New Jersey, have claimed their city is about to return to its vibrant past. How accurate is this prediction? Is Newark on the verge of revitalization? Robert Curvin, who was one of New Jersey’s outstanding civil rights leaders, examines the city, chronicling its history, politics, and culture. Throughout the pages of Inside Newark, Curvin approaches his story both as an insider who is rooting for Newark and as an objective social scientist illuminating the causes and effects of sweeping changes in the city. 

Based on historical records and revealing interviews with over one hundred residents and officials, Inside Newark traces Newark’s history from the 1950s, when the city was a thriving industrial center, to the era of Mayor Cory Booker. Along the way, Curvin covers the disturbances of July 1967, called a riot by the media and a rebellion by residents; the administration of Kenneth Gibson, the first black mayor of a large northeastern city; and the era of Sharpe James, who was found guilty of corruption. Curvin examines damaging housing and mortgage policies, the state takeover of the failing school system, the persistence of corruption and patronage, Newark’s shifting ethnic and racial composition, positive developments in housing and business complexes, and the reign of ambitious mayor Cory Booker.

Inside Newark reveals a central weakness that continues to plague Newark—that throughout this history, elected officials have not risen to the challenges they have faced.  Curvin calls on those in positions of influence to work for the social and economic improvement of all groups and concludes with suggestions for change, focusing on education reform, civic participation, financial management, partnerships with agencies and business, improving Newark’s City Council, and limiting the term of the mayor. If Newark’s leadership can encompass these changes, Newark will have a chance at a true turnaround. 
 
Watch a video with Robert Curvin:

Watch video now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-d6zV2OQ8A).
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cover of Inspectors-General: Junkyard Dogs or Man's Best Friend?

Inspectors-General

Junkyard Dogs or Man's Best Friend?

Mark Moore

Russell Sage Foundation, 1986

In 1978, determined to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in government programs, Congress overwhelmingly approved the creation of special Offices of Inspectors-General (OIGs) in many federal departments. Moore and Gates here provide the first evaluation of this important institutional innovation. Clearly and objectively, they examine the powerful but often imprecisely defined concepts—wastefulness, accountability, performance—that underlie the OIG mandate. Their study conveys a realistic sense of how these offices operate and how their impact is affected by the changing dynamics of politics and personality. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Social Science Perspectives Series
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cover of Inspired Citizens: How Our Political Role Models Shape American Politics

Inspired Citizens

How Our Political Role Models Shape American Politics

Jennie Sweet-Cushman

Temple University Press, 2024

Political role models are people that voters form a connection with, and who provoke them to think differently about and engage with politics. Inspired Citizens examines the impact role models have in American politics through the lens of political psychology. Jennie Sweet-Cushman investigates how citizens, especially marginalized ones, can be influenced by the presence of political role models. She asks critical questions: Do role models increase political participation and strengthen American democracy? Do role models encourage candidate emergence?

Sweet-Cushman develops Inspired Citizenship Theory to show that political role models can have motivating effects on one’s political citizenship and may, in some case, insulate those who have been traditionally marginalized in American politics. Moreover, she asserts that citizens who have political role models possess very different political behaviors and attitudes than those who do not.

Inspired Citizens also considers the often-conflicting pressures and messages political role models project to citizens. Sweet-Cushman posits that role models inspire political action most effectively when they fulfill highly individualized expectations for role model identity, spurring deeper connection and a desire to emulate.

Inspired Citizens strengthens our understanding of what we should (and should not) look to political figures for in guiding democratic behaviors and inspiring productive citizenship.
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cover of Institutional Change, Discretion, and the Making of Modern Congress: An Economic Interpretation

Institutional Change, Discretion, and the Making of Modern Congress

An Economic Interpretation

Glenn R. Parker

University of Michigan Press, 1992

Controversial new interpretation of legislators' behavior
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cover of Insuring Inequality: Administrative Leadership in Social Security, 1935-54

Insuring Inequality

Administrative Leadership in Social Security, 1935-54

Jerry R. Cates

University of Michigan Press, 1983

The establishment of the Social Security Board in 1935 confronted administrators and policy makers with basic value decisions. Should the system serve to raise the incomes of America's neediest citizens? Or did that aim smack too much of the ideology of redistribution of wealth? Would it rob workers of incentives to provide for their own futures and reward idleness? The conflict of values was played out on a political stage marked by infighting, deception, and short-sighted compromise. The result is the social security system we know today— one that benefits those who need it least, and one that is in a perpetual state of financial difficulty. Insuring Inequality is a penetrating analysis and indictment of that bureaucracy which felt the welfare of America's aged was an acceptable price to pay for the preservation of an ideologically correct social insurance system— a system that would not seriously challenge income inequality in America. Previously unresearched documents not only reveal that social insurance discriminates against the poor and this was a foreseen, intended consequence; but they also reveal that the leaders predicted a financially troubled system and did little to prevent it.
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cover of Insurrection: The American Revolution and Its Meaning

Insurrection

The American Revolution and Its Meaning

James Kirby Martin

Westholme Publishing, 2019

A New Edition of an Important Interpretation of One of the Greatest Events in World History
The Revolutionary generation believed they were living in dangerous, turbulent times. Their uprising against British imperial authority beginning in the 1760s represented an attempt to preserve their liberties in the face of what they perceived as a conspiracy from above, ultimately brought on by a tyrannical king and Parliament. The actual number of insurgents—we call them rebels or patriots—represented no more than 20 to 25 percent of the populace. Approximately the same number of persons refused to renounce their loyalty to the British Crown; and thousands of them joined British arms to crush the patriot insurrection. Not committed to supporting either side were large numbers of neutrals whose allegiance varied with their proximity to competing military forces. Once independence was secured, however, a great shift occurred. Some key Revolutionary leaders began to worry that the common people, if given too much political authority, would produce agitation from below that could destroy the delicate fabric of the newly established republic. Reckoning with this social and political disorder resulted in a series of constitutional settlements. What emerged was a more democratic system of government operating, at least theoretically, in the name of a sovereign people who had replaced the king and Parliament.
    In Insurrection: The American Revolution and Its Meaning, award-winning historian James Kirby Martin discusses the causes, course, and consequences of the War for Independence. While interpretations of the Revolution and its short- and long-term meaning abound, Martin emphasizes that the insurrection against British monarchism led to more profound changes in human institutions and ideals than many of the Revolutionary leaders actually envisioned or wanted. Once unleashed, the genie of greater freedom and liberty for all could not be forced back into the bottle, no matter how much some persons would have desired. 
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cover of Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations

Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations

William Anderson

University of Minnesota Press, 1956

Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations was first published in 1956. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume is number 8 in a series of monographs edited by William Anderson and Edward W. Weidner on intergovernmental relations in the United States as observed in the state of Minnesota. Topics discussed include: the financial problems of a federal system; Minnesota’s place and rank in the union; the financial relationship between Minnesota and the nation from 1783 to 1953; the respective financial powers of Minnesota and the nation; national and state taxes in Minnesota; federal grants-in-aid as a revenue source; the national-state fiscal balance; state-local revenue relations; and state payments to local governments.
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cover of Intergovernmental Relations as Seen by Public Officials

Intergovernmental Relations as Seen by Public Officials

Edward Weidner

University of Minnesota Press, 1960

Intergovernmental Relations as Seen by Public Officials was first published in 1960. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume is number 9 in a series of monographs edited by William Anderson and Edward W. Weidner on intergovernmental relations in the United States as observed in the state of Minnesota. Topics of discussion in the report include: officials and their units of government; the increase or decrease and allocation of activities; frequency of contacts and degrees of cooperation; governmental powers and vertical and horizontal intergovernmental relations; conclusions and anticipations; the Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) Questionnaire; the Participation-Awareness-Responsibility (PAR) Categories; and methods of research.
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cover of Intergovernmental Relations in Education

Intergovernmental Relations in Education

Robert Morlan

University of Minnesota Press, 1950

Intergovernmental Relations in Education was first published in 1950. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume is number 3 in a series of monographs edited by William Anderson and Edward W. Weidner on intergovernmental relations in the United States as observed in the state of Minnesota. The study covers two areas, public elementary and secondary education, and higher education and special programs. The first part examines administrative and financial relationship between state and local public school agencies, vocational education, the community school lunch program, education of Indians, and libraries. The latter section includes the education of veterans, agricultural extension and experiment stations, vocational rehabilitation, and apprentice training.
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cover of Intergovernmental Relations in Public Health

Intergovernmental Relations in Public Health

Laurence Wyatt

University of Minnesota Press, 1951

Intergovernmental Relations in Public Health was first published in 1951. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume is number 4 in a series of monographs edited by William Anderson and Edward W. Weidner on intergovernmental relations in the United States as observed in the state of Minnesota. Dr. Wyatt examines the United States Public Health Service, the United States Children’s Bureau, and other federal services related to public health through the study of Minnesota’s state and local health departments and allied agencies. Interstate, state-local, and inter-local relations are described throughout the analysis.
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cover of Intergovernmental Relations in Review

Intergovernmental Relations in Review

William Anderson

University of Minnesota Press, 1960

Intergovernmental Relations in Review was first published in 1960. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume is number 10 in a series of monographs edited by William Anderson and Edward W. Weidner on intergovernmental relations in the United States as observed in the state of Minnesota. Its contents summarize the activities of the Intergovernmental Relations Project while reviewing the progress made throughout its existence. Topics discussed include: the changing scene and the American federal system; the constitutional system of national-state relations; the national government in Minnesota; metropolitan problems in national-local and inter-local relations; and the federal equilibrium and the states.
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cover of Intergovernmental Relations in Social Welfare

Intergovernmental Relations in Social Welfare

Ruth Raup

University of Minnesota Press, 1952

Intergovernmental Relations in Social Welfare was first published in 1952. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume is number 5 in a series of monographs edited by William Anderson and Edward W. Weidner on intergovernmental relations in the United States as observed in the state of Minnesota. Topics of discussion in the report include: an introduction to intergovernmental welfare programs in Minnesota and their administrative organization; comparisons of these programs with other states; supervisory and non-supervisory relationships between national, state, and local government welfare agencies in the administration of public assistance and child welfare services; problems of grant allocation and integration; and problems of inter-state and inter-county relations arising in administration of settlement requirements.
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cover of Intergovernmental Relations in the American Administrative State: The Johnson Presidency

Intergovernmental Relations in the American Administrative State

The Johnson Presidency

By David M. Welborn and Jesse Burkhead

University of Texas Press, 1989

During the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson and his administration substantially altered the structure of the American administrative state. Creating intergovernmental programs to forward the goal of the Great Society, they changed the contours of national-state-local relationships, and these changes largely have remained, despite the attempts of later administrations to reverse them. Intergovernmental Relations in the American Administrative State is the first comprehensive study of how and why these changes occurred.

Drawn from a wealth of primary material in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, the study probes the objectives of the president and other framers of new policies and programs, within the institutional and political context of the time. The authors give special attention to the inherent incongruities that arise when intergovernmental programs are used to address problems defined in national terms. In addition, they reveal how certain programs actually challenged the power of established national bureaucracies. They conclude with a thoughtful overview of the Johnson legacy in intergovernmental relations during subsequent administrations.

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cover of Intimate States: Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in Modern US History

Intimate States

Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in Modern US History

Edited by Margot Canaday, Nancy F. Cott, and Robert O. Self

University of Chicago Press, 2021

Fourteen essays examine the unexpected relationships between government power and intimate life in the last 150 years of United States history.
 
The last few decades have seen a surge of historical scholarship that analyzes state power and expands our understanding of governmental authority and the ways we experience it. At the same time, studies of the history of intimate life—marriage, sexuality, child-rearing, and family—also have blossomed. Yet these two literatures have not been considered together in a sustained way. This book, edited and introduced by three preeminent American historians, aims to close this gap, offering powerful analyses of the relationship between state power and intimate experience in the United States from the Civil War to the present.

The fourteen essays that make up Intimate States argue that “intimate governance”—the binding of private daily experience to the apparatus of the state—should be central to our understanding of modern American history. Our personal experiences have been controlled and arranged by the state in ways we often don’t even see, the authors and editors argue; correspondingly, contemporary government has been profoundly shaped by its approaches and responses to the contours of intimate life, and its power has become so deeply embedded into daily social life that it is largely indistinguishable from society itself. Intimate States makes a persuasive case that the state is always with us, even in our most seemingly private moments.
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cover of Inventing Congress: Origins and Establishment of the First Federal Congress

Inventing Congress

Origins and Establishment of the First Federal Congress

Kenneth R. Bowling

Ohio University Press, 1999

On March 4, 1789, New York City's church bells pealed, cannons fired, and flags snapped in the wind to celebrate the date set for the opening of the First Federal Congress. In many ways the establishment of Congress marked the culmination of the American Revolution as the ship of state was launched from the foundation of the legislative system outlined in Article I of the Constitution.

Inventing Congress presents the latest scholarship on the interrelated intellectual, institutional, cultural, and political antecedents of the formation of the First Federal Congress. The first section covers the origins of the body, ranging in discussion from the question of how the founders' understanding of classical Greek and Roman republican precedent shaped their thinking, to the political lessons learned during the Continental and Confederation Congresses.

The second section concerns itself with the establishment of the First Federal Congress, examining several heretofore little-treated aspects of the most important Congress in history, including its relationship to the press, morality, the arts and sciences, and economic philosophy.

Inventing Congress represents the papers from the first two conferences sponsored by the United States Capitol Historical Society in its series, “Perspectives on the History of Congress, 1789-1801.”

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cover of Is Administrative Law Unlawful?

Is Administrative Law Unlawful?

Philip Hamburger

University of Chicago Press, 2014

Is administrative law unlawful? This provocative question has become all the more significant with the expansion of the modern administrative state. While the federal government traditionally could constrain liberty only through acts of Congress and the courts, the executive branch has increasingly come to control Americans through its own administrative rules and adjudication, thus raising disturbing questions about the effect of this sort of state power on American government and society.

With Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, Philip Hamburger answers this question in the affirmative, offering a revisionist account of administrative law. Rather than accepting it as a novel power necessitated by modern society, he locates its origins in the medieval and early modern English tradition of royal prerogative. Then he traces resistance to administrative law from the Middle Ages to the present. Medieval parliaments periodically tried to confine the Crown to governing through regular law, but the most effective response was the seventeenth-century development of English constitutional law, which concluded that the government could rule only through the law of the land and the courts, not through administrative edicts. Although the US Constitution pursued this conclusion even more vigorously, administrative power reemerged in the Progressive and New Deal Eras. Since then, Hamburger argues, administrative law has returned American government and society to precisely the sort of consolidated or absolute power that the US Constitution—and constitutions in general—were designed to prevent.

With a clear yet many-layered argument that draws on history, law, and legal thought, Is Administrative Law Unlawful? reveals administrative law to be not a benign, natural outgrowth of contemporary government but a pernicious—and profoundly unlawful—return to dangerous pre-constitutional absolutism.
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cover of Isolation and Engagement: Presidential Decision Making on China from Kennedy to Nixon

Isolation and Engagement

Presidential Decision Making on China from Kennedy to Nixon

William Waltman Newmann

University of Michigan Press, 2022

Presidents and their advisors consistently seek to improve the management of their foreign policy decision processes. This book analyzes the successes and failures of administrations from Kennedy to Nixon as they sought to strike a balance between the personal style of the president and the need for a strong interagency structure that could systematically evaluate policy options. The narrative focuses on US decision making on China and Taiwan during the crucial era when the US was considering moving from a policy of isolating China to a policy of engagement, culminating in Nixon’s historic 1972 trip to China. William Waltman Newmann has created an Evolution-Balancing model, tested with case studies focusing on China policy by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, showing how the relationships between a president and his advisors change based on the weaknesses or pathologies of the president’s management style. The author’s research is based on declassified archival material from the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford presidential libraries.
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cover of It's Not Personal: Politics and Policy in Lower Court Confirmation Hearings

It's Not Personal

Politics and Policy in Lower Court Confirmation Hearings

Logan Dancey, Kjersten R. Nelson, and Eve M. Ringsmuth

University of Michigan Press, 2020

In order to be confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench, all district and circuit court nominees must appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing. Despite their relatively low profile, these lower court judges make up 99 percent of permanent federal judgeships and decide cases that relate to a wide variety of policy areas. To uncover why senators hold confirmation hearings for lower federal court nominees and the value of these proceedings more generally, the authors analyzed transcripts for all district and circuit court confirmation hearings between 1993 and 2012, the largest systematic analysis of lower court confirmation hearings to date. The book finds that the time-consuming practice of confirmation hearings for district and circuit court nominees provides an important venue for senators to advocate on behalf of their policy preferences and bolster their chances of being re-elected. The wide variation in lower court nominees’ experiences before the Judiciary Committee exists because senators pursue these goals in different ways, depending on the level of controversy surrounding a nominee. Ultimately, the findings inform a (re)assessment of the role hearings play in ensuring quality judges, providing advice and consent, and advancing the democratic values of transparency and accountability.

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