Preface

Welcome to American Government 2e, an OpenStax resource. This textbook was written to increase student access to high-quality learning materials, maintaining highest standards of academic rigor at little to no cost.

About OpenStax

OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University, and it’s our mission to improve student access to education. Our first openly licensed college textbook was published in 2012, and our library has since scaled to over 30 books for college and AP® courses used by hundreds of thousands of students. OpenStax Tutor, our low-cost personalized learning tool, is being used in college courses throughout the country. Through our partnerships with philanthropic foundations and our alliance with other educational resource organizations, OpenStax is breaking down the most common barriers to learning and empowering students and instructors to succeed.

About OpenStax’s resources

Customization

American Government 2e is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, which means that you can distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors.

Because our books are openly licensed, you are free to use the entire book or pick and choose the sections that are most relevant to the needs of your course. Feel free to remix the content by assigning your students certain chapters and sections in your syllabus, in the order that you prefer. You can even provide a direct link in your syllabus to the sections in the web view of your book.

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About American Government 2e

American Government 2e is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester American Government course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including Insider Perspective features and a Get Connected module that shows students how they can get engaged in the political process. The book provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of American Government and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them.

Coverage and scope

Our American Government 2e textbook adheres to the scope and sequence of introductory American government courses nationwide. We have endeavored to make the workings of American Government interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject at the college level. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. The organization and pedagogical features were developed and vetted with feedback from American government instructors dedicated to the project.

Unit I: Students and the System

  • Module 1: American Government and Civic Engagement
  • Module 2: The Constitution and Its Origins
  • Module 3: American Federalism

Unit II: Individual Agency and Action

  • Module 4: Civil Liberties
  • Module 5: Civil Rights
  • Module 6: The Politics of Public Opinion
  • Module 7: Voting and Elections

Unit III: Toward Collective Action: Mediating Institutions

  • Module 8: The Media
  • Module 9: Political Parties
  • Module 10: Interest Groups and Lobbying

Unit IV: Delivering Collective Action: Formal Institutions

  • Module 11: Congress
  • Module 12: The Presidency
  • Module 13: The Courts
  • Module 14: State and Local Government

Unit V: Outputs of Government

  • Module 15: The Bureaucracy
  • Module 16: Domestic Policy
  • Module 17: Foreign Policy

Appendixes

  • Appendix A: Declaration of Independence
  • Appendix B: The Constitution of the United States
  • Appendix C: Federalist Papers #10 and #51
  • Appendix D: Electoral College Votes by State, 2012–2020
  • Appendix E: Selected Supreme Court Cases

Changes to the second edition

OpenStax only undertakes second editions when significant modifications to the text are necessary. After publishing the first edition of American Government soon after the 2016 election, adopter feedback indicated that the 2018 midterm elections were a logical timeline for an update. Faculty indicated that waiting until this point would allow more time for analysis of the 2016 election and its outcomes, and that the results of the 2018 elections would be significant enough to drive discussion in courses. Nearly all of the revisions are focused on careful and balanced treatment of the events and developments of the past two years, and the manner in which those developments connect to core concepts.

As always with OpenStax textbooks, we will undertake efforts to keep the book as current as possible through our errata and updating process. However, in order to minimize disruption, we will not adjust to every new development in the political or government arena. We welcome feedback on the content and approach on our errata page and invite adopters to send other inquiries or suggestions to info@openstax.org.

Effective art program

Our art program is designed to enhance students’ understanding of concepts through clear and effective statistical graphs, tables, and photographs.

A chart on the left shows the widening partisan differences in political values between 1987 and 2012. In the center of the chart is a vertical axis line. On the right side of the line are the years 1987 through 2012 marked with ticks. On the left side of the line are percentages, labeled “the percentage-point differences between Republicans and Democrats on questions about values”. The percentages are as follows: 10% in 1987, 9% in 1988, 10% in 1990, 11% in 1994, 9% in 1997, 11% in 1999, 11% in 2002, 14% in 2003, 14% in 2007, 16% in 2009, and 18% in 2012. At the bottom of the chart, a source is cited: “Pew research center, “2012 values survey.” April 2012”. A chart on the right shows the percentage intergenerational resemblance in partisan orientation in 1992. People who identify as strong democrat reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 31% reported both of their parents as democrats, 6% reported both of their parents as republicans, and 10% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. Weak democrats reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 27% reported both parents as democrat, 6% reported both their parents as republicans, and 14% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. Independent democrats reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 14% reported both parents as democrats, 6% reported both parents as republicans, and 18% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. Pure independents reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 7% reported both parents as democrats. 7% reported both parents as republicans. 17% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. Independent republicans reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 7% reported both parents as democrats, 16% reported both parents as republicans. 16% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. Weak republicans reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 8% reported both parents as democrats, 32% reported both parents as republicans, 14% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. Strong republicans reported their parents’ political orientation as follows: 6% reported both parents as democrats, 27% report both parents as republicans, and 9% reported no consistent partisanship among parents. At the bottom of the chart, a source is cited: “Miller, Warren E., Donald R. Kinder, Steven J. Rosenstone, and National Election Studies. American National Election Study, 1992: Pre- and Post-Election Survey [Enhanced with 1990 and 1991 Data]. ICPSR06067-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1999. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06067.v2”.A chart titled “Appointments of the Current Supreme Court Justices”. A horizontal timeline runs through the center of the chart. Starting from the left, the first point marked on the line is labeled “Anthony Kennedy, Appointed by Ronald Regan in 1988”. The label is colored blue and red to indicate both liberal and conservative. The second point is labeled “Clarence Thomas, Appointed by George H. W. Bush in 1991”. The label is colored red to indicate conservative. The third point is labeled “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993”. The label is colored blue to indicate liberal. The fourth point is labeled “Stephen Breyer, Appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994”. The label is colored blue to indicate liberal. The fifth point is labeled “John Roberts (Chief), Appointed by George W. Bush in 2005”. The label is colored red to indicate conservative. The sixth point is labeled “Samuel Alito, Appointed by George W. Bush in 2006”. The label is colored red to indicate conservative. The seventh point is labeled “Sonia Sotomayor, Appointed by Barack Obama in 2009”. The label is colored blue to indicate liberal. The eight point is labeled “Elena Kagan, Appointed by Barack Obama in 2010”. The label is colored blue to indicate liberal. The last point is labeled with an uncolored question mark.

Module materials that reinforce key concepts

  • Learning Objectives. Every module begins with a set of clear and concise learning objectives. These objectives are designed to help the instructor decide what content to include or assign, and to guide students with respect to what they can expect to learn. After completing the module and end-of-module exercises, students should be able to demonstrate mastery of the learning objectives.
  • Summaries. Section summaries distill the information in each module for both students and instructors down to key, concise points addressed in the section.
  • Key Terms. Key terms are in bold and are followed by a definition in context. Definitions of key terms are also listed in the Glossary, which appears at the end of the chapter.
  • Assessments. Multiple-choice and short-answer Review Questions provide opportunities to recall and test the information students learn throughout each module. End-of-chapter Critical Thinking Questions encourage deeper reflection on the chapter concepts and themes.

Additional resources

Student and instructor resources

We’ve compiled additional resources for both students and instructors, including Getting Started Guides, PowerPoint slides, and an instructor answer guide. Instructor resources require a verified instructor account, which you can apply for when you log in or create your account on OpenStax.org. Take advantage of these resources to supplement your OpenStax book.

Community hubs

OpenStax partners with the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) to offer Community Hubs on OER Commons—a platform for instructors to share community-created resources that support OpenStax books, free of charge. Through our Community Hubs, instructors can upload their own materials or download resources to use in their own courses, including additional ancillaries, teaching material, multimedia, and relevant course content. We encourage instructors to join the hubs for the subjects most relevant to your teaching and research as an opportunity both to enrich your courses and to engage with other faculty.

To reach the Community Hubs, visit OER Commons.

Technology partners

As allies in making high-quality learning materials accessible, our technology partners offer optional low-cost tools that are integrated with OpenStax books. To access the technology options for your text, visit your book page on openstax.org.

About the authors

Senior contributing authors

Glen Krutz (Content Lead), University of Oklahoma
Dr. Glen Krutz received his BA and MPA from the University of Nevada–Reno, and his PhD from Texas A&M University. He joined the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Political Science in 2002 and serves as Professor of Political Science, teaching the American Government course to hundreds of students each semester. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Krutz worked in politics and policy, as a campaign assistant and then Capitol Hill aide to a U.S. senator, and as a research analyst for what would become the Nevada System of Higher Education. He has authored and co-authored several books, and his work has appeared in numerous leading journals. Dr. Krutz’s current research probes questions of public policy agenda-setting in democratic political institutions, especially Congress.

Sylvie Waskiewicz (Lead Editor), PhD
Dr. Waskiewicz received her BSBA from Georgetown University and her MA and PhD from the Institute of French Studies at New York University. With a specialization in Franco-American relations and over ten years of teaching experience at the university level, Sylvie left academia to join the ranks of higher education publishing. She has spent the last nine years editing college textbooks and academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, and world languages.

Contributing authors

Prosper Bernard, Jr., City University of New York
Jennifer Danley-Scott, Texas Woman’s University
Ann Kordas, Johnson & Wales University
Christopher Lawrence, Middle Georgia State College
Tonya Neaves, George Mason University
Adam Newmark, Appalachian State University
Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State University
Joel Webb, Tulane University
Shawn Williams, Campbellsville University
Rhonda Wrzenski, Indiana University Southeast

Reviewers

Brad Allard, Hill College
Milan Andrejevich, Ivy Tech Community College
Thomas Arndt, Rowan University
Sue Atkinson, University of Maryland–University College
Edward Bond, Alabama A&M University
Joseph Campbell, Rose State College
James Davenport, Rose State College
Sharon Deubreau, Rhodes State College
Henry Esparza, University of Texas–San Antonio
Terri Fine, University of Central Florida
Mark Francisco, Volunteer State Community College
Sarah Gershon, Georgia State University
Rick Gianni, Indiana University Northwest
Travis Grasser, Commerce High School
Eric Herzik, University of Nevada–Reno
Matthew Hipps, Dalton State College
Alexander Hogan, Lone Star College–CyFair
Cynthia Hunter-Summerlin, Tarrant County College
Tseggai Isaac, University of Missouri-Rolla
Walter Jatkowski, III, Northwest College
Kevin Jeffries, Alvin Community College
J. Aaron Knight, Houston Community College
Robert Lancaster, Kentucky State University
John Lund, Keene State College
Shari MacLachlan, Palm Beach State College
Carol Marmaduke-Sands, North Central Texas College
James McCormick, Iowa State University
Eric Miller, Blinn College
Sara Moats, Florida International University
Marie Natoli, Emmanuel College
Caryn Neumann, Miami University of Ohio
James Newman, Southeast Missouri State University
Cynthia Newton, Wesley College
Jeffrey S. Peake, Clemson University
G. David Price, Santa Fe College
James Ronan, Rowan University
David Smith, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Leniece Smith, Jackson State University
Kai Sorensen, Central Michigan University
James Starkey, Pasadena City College
Karen Stewart, Collin College
Abram Trosky, United States Coast Guard Academy
Adam Warber, Clemson University
Alexander Wathen, University of Houston–Downtown
Reed Welch, West Texas A&M University
Yvonne Wollenberg, Rutgers University
John Wood, University of Central Oklahoma
Laura Wood, Tarrant County College
Michael Zarkin, Westminster College