This handbook provides a sweeping overview of U.S. campaign and election reform efforts, past and present, from the introduction of the secret ballot to touch-screen voting. Emphasizing the major electoral reforms since 2000, this second edition of Campaign and Election Reform investigates the development of the American electoral system from colonial times to the present. It chronicles efforts to expand suffrage, reform campaign financing, and prevent vote fraud, and traces the development of election technology from the paper ballot to the lever voting machine, from the punch-card ballot to the optical-scan and touch-screen systems. The book also explores alternative voting systems, such as preference voting and proportional representation, and compares the U.S. electoral process with the voting systems of selected European democracies. Campaign and Election Reform, Second Edition is essential reading for any citizen who wants to understand the U.S. electoral system, what's wrong with it, and how it might be fixed. Includes extensive quotations from reform advocates, along with excerpts from legislation and court cases related to changing campaign and election procedures Summaries of recent research on voter turnout provide a means of evaluating legislation intended to increase voter registration and turnout rates

Here is a comprehensive account of the U.S. constitution--including its evolution and its impact on shaping American government and political representation. In eight fact-filled chapters, the authors carefully explore the U.S. Constitution's role. Chapter 1 looks at various conflicts which occurred during its ratification in 1787. The next chapter examines both the initial and subsequent impacts of liberalism and capitalism on the Constitution. The following chapters discuss the growth of federal power and the role of the courts in interpreting the Constitution. Chapter five divides Constitutional amendments into those which expand individual liberties versus those which alter the structure of government, places them in historical perspective, and traces amendments through the process of passage. The following chapters analyze the geographic basis for representation established in the Constitutional change and suggests some nontraditional changes.

"This weekend I read Getting Tenure with hopes of perhaps finding something I could use in my Academic Writing & Publishing class for graduate students. . . . Well, well, well . . . what a surprise! The authors, and yourself, should be complimented for producing an outstanding reality-based piece of work. As chair of the Rehabilitation Institute Faculty Productivity Committee for over a decade, and as a member of the Promotion/Tenure Committee, I can attest to the total accuracy of the contents of the book. . . . Congratulations on an excellent piece of work." --T. F. Riggar, Ed.D., Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Tenure. The one word guaranteed to send shivers of hope or dread down the back of any junior professor. Have I published enough? Will the department chair sponsor me through the process? What can I do to ensure that I get it? The process is a complicated one involving many players and all facets of the scholar's life, according to Marcia Lynn Whicker, Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld, and Ruth Ann Strickland. Achieving success is not something to be left to chance or in someone else's hands; there are clear, positive steps you can take to help yourself toward that goal. The authors suggest being prepared to think politically, manage your image, and focus your attention on things that matter to the decision makers, for tenure is not simply rewarding the productive and discarding the rest. This brief, practical guide demystifies the tenure process and gives concrete advice to graduate students and junior faculty on how to strategize to maximize your chances of hearing those golden words "you got it."