Why does the American political system work the way it does? This major revision brings a renewed focus to the institutions, processes and data that illuminate big questions about governance and representation in the United States. With a new adaptive learning tool, this edition does more than ever to help students understand how American government developed over time and how it works today.

American Government: A Brief Introduction teaches students how to interpret and question data in charts, graphs, and polls that they encounter daily in social media. Drawing on her expertise as both a teacher and researcher, new co-author Hahrie Han helps students develop essential quantitative literacy as they learn how American government works. A reconceptualized introductory chapter establishes a foundation for interpreting empirical evidence, and a unique framework built around the themes of governance and representation, helps students understand how the concepts and processes of American government function in their daily lives. Together with a robust media program that offers opportunities to remediate and apply these skills, American Government: A Brief Introduction builds the knowledge and confidence that enables students to think for themselves-whether in the voting booth, community participation, or interpreting in the news.

A dynamic authorial team of leading American politics scholars and a teachable Five Principles of Politics framework made American Government: Power and Purpose the gold standard in its field for more than 30 years. The Seventeenth Edition introduces the first new co-author in a decade, Hahrie Han (Johns Hopkins University), who brings a contemporary perspective on teaching American government and on the foundational collective action principle interwoven throughout the text. Together with InQuizitive, Norton’s online learning tool, and the new Norton Illumine Ebook, American Government engages students in applying the Five Principles framework to American politics. In the process, they learn to think critically about course concepts and understand how contemporary scholarship shapes our understanding of American government, past and present.

Thoroughly updated based on recent scholarship and current events, American Government: Power and Purpose remains the gold standard for teaching a political scientific perspective on American government. Thorough analysis of the 2018 midterm elections and the first years of the Trump presidency make this revision more current and authoritative than ever.

Thoroughly updated based on recent scholarship and current events, American Government: Power and Purpose remains the gold standard for teaching a political scientific perspective on American government. Thorough analysis of the 2018 midterm elections and the first years of the Trump presidency make this revision more current and authoritative than ever.

American Government: Power and Purpose is the gold standard for teaching with a political scientific perspective on American politics because it combines the most current scholarship with a framework that engages students in the analytical process. Now with InQuizitive, Norton's adaptive learning tool, students have even more opportunities to master core concepts and apply the text's hallmark Five Principles of Politics to make sense of American politics.

Stephen Ansolabehere and James Snyder detail the history of one person, one vote in American political theory and politics, and tell the story of the people presidents, legislators, judges, lawyers, and ordinary citizens who fought the battles to define this fundamental feature of American democracy.

How Americans make energy choices, why they think locally (not globally), and how this can shape U.S. energy and climate change policy. How do Americans think about energy? Is the debate over fossil fuels highly partisan and ideological? Does public opinion about fossil fuels and alternative energies divide along the fault between red states and blue states? And how much do concerns about climate change weigh on their opinions? In Cheap and Clean, Stephen Ansolabehere and David Konisky show that Americans are more pragmatic than ideological in their opinions about energy alternatives, more unified than divided about their main concerns, and more local than global in their approach to energy. Drawing on extensive surveys they designed and conducted over the course of a decade (in conjunction with MIT's Energy Initiative), Ansolabehere and Konisky report that beliefs about the costs and environmental harms associated with particular fuels drive public opinions about energy. People approach energy choices as consumers, and what is most important to them is simply that energy be cheap and clean. Most of us want energy at low economic cost and with little social cost (that is, minimal health risk from pollution). The authors also find that although environmental concerns weigh heavily in people's energy preferences, these concerns are local and not global. Worries about global warming are less pressing to most than worries about their own city's smog and toxic waste. With this in mind, Ansolabehere and Konisky argue for policies that target both local pollutants and carbon emissions (the main source of global warming). The local and immediate nature of people's energy concerns can be the starting point for a new approach to energy and climate change policy.

Political advertising has been called the worst cancer in American society. Ads cost millions, and yet the entire campaign season is now filled with nasty and personal attacks. In this landmark six-year study, two of the nation's leading political scientists show exactly how cancerous the ad spot has become. 16 illustrations.