Part of the popular “Penguin Academics” Series, America's Democratic Republic is a brief, affordable book in an accessible trade-like format that explores the clash between the democratic aspirations of the American people and the republican foundations of our Constitution.
Written with a lively, narrative style, this text traces the storyline of American government and focuses on the .long standing and inescapable tension between the country’s 18th Century republican Constitutional foundations and the democratic aspirations of the American people. The thematic framework helps students to consider American government and politics as a hybrid--rooted equally in the founder’s intentions to restrain the majority and the people’s growing demand for a more fully realized democracy. In this manner, America’s Democratic Republic provides an engaging narrative that works to diminish student apathy, quell cynicism, and inspire their reengagement in civic life.
The “Penguin Academics” series offers accessibly written, elegantly designed, and highly affordable trade-format books by pre-eminent scholars.
Features:
- Inexpensive. The book's brevity and extremely affordable price make it an excellent option for professors who want to use supplementary texts, readings, or periodicals in their course.
- Written around a single storyline,” the text often reads like a novel, engaging even the most apathetic students and inspiring them to read on.
- Unique main theme of the clash of Democratic aspirations and Republican constitutional foundations focuses on the nature of modern American politics as a unique hybrid of these two influences, offering an illuminating narrative that helps students to understand and think critically about American government and politics.
- Chapter-opening vignettes provide a compelling story to draw students into the chapter and preview how that chapter's subject is shaped by the text's theme.
- “America’s Democratic Republic” theme is integrated through every chapter, both in the narrative and in a variety of integral features. Taken together, they help students to consider the nature of the conflict or cooperation between democratic aspirations and republican constitutional foundations in each chapter:
- America’s Democratic Republic In This Chapter previews link opening vignettes to the chapter ahead, and the overarching theme of the book.
- Democratic Republic Callouts. Important points relevant to the overarching theme--including frequent reminders about the meaning of the word “republican”--are highlighted periodically with callout boxes that serve as a visual prompt to remind students to consider the nature of the America’s democratic republic.
- Democratic Republic chapter-ending conclusions review the principal points made in the chapter in and offer some analysis of how they play out in America’s unique hybrid government.
- Useful--but unobtrusive--pedagogical tools:
- Key points are called out in simple highlighted text to serve as visual prompts for students while reviewing. Key points relevant to the overarching theme--including frequent reminders about the meaning of the word “republican--are highlighted as well, with special “Democratic Republic” headings.
- Key terms appear boldfaced within the text, and listed at the end of the chapter with page references. A complete glossary is provided at the back of the book.
- Suggestions for further reading and updated Internet Sources round out the chapter-ending pedagogy.
- A fully revised photo program highlights current events and policy issues
- Figures provide important explanations and up-to-date data.
New to this Edition:
Updated throughout!
- Includes results of the historic 2008 presidential and congressional elections, as well as important 2008 Supreme Court decisions.
- New scholarship woven throughout the book offers illuminating insight into modern policies, practices, and institutions. In Chapter 9 (Political Parties), for example, the authors identify a seventh party era, which they call “the parties at war” to describe the extreme partisanship that has defined American politics since the mid-1990s. Elsewhere, the authors point to new data and trends indicating increased inequality in recent years.
- Updated figures throughout provide current data
NEW and expanded policy coverage:
- NEW Chapter 15: The Budget and Economic Policy, with an introduction to the policy-making process
- NEW Chapter 16: Social Safety Nets
- A thoroughly revised Chapter 17: Foreign Policy and National Defense
NEW and REVISED chapter opening vignettes highlight current events and policies. New topics include the ongoing mortgage crisis and recession, presidential signing statements, arguments over the torture of detainees, and the bureaucratic breakdown that resulted in mass recalls of toys and other products from China.
Revised! “The Democratic Republic” sections ending each chapter have been revised to better inspire critical thinking. Students are invited to evaluate the state of democracy in today’s democratic republic, and consider the themes of the chapter in light of both the founders’ vision for the republic and the people’s inevitable march toward a more fully realized democracy.
