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American Government, Politics, and Public Policy

Nelson W. Polsby and Aaron Wildavsky, 340 pages, $24.95, ISBN 1-889119-26-1, Book #NEL9261

"With the exception of V.O. Key's Politics, Parties and Pressure Groups, it is difficult to think of any other book in the history of American political science that has gone through so many new editions over such an extended time span and with such consistently high quality. What still sets this book apart from its competitors is its sense of perspective: about how day-to-day strategic decisions are affected by the institutional environment, about how the dynamics of presidential elections fit into the larger picture of American national government."

--William G. Mayer, editor of In Pursuit of the White House 2000

On Parties: Essays Honoring Austin Ranney Nelson W. Polsby and Raymond E. Wolfinger, eds., 1999, 325pp, $21.95, ISBN 0-87772-388-5, book #3885 Over the past 50 years, no one has contributed more to our understanding of political parties than Austin Ranney. Here, 12 leading experts, Ranney?s colleagues and students, adopt Ranney?s agenda and examine contemporary political parties from a variety of perspectives. They highlight the recent movement to subject parties to legal regulation and control and examine topics ranging from party ideology, to the nomination process, and the perennial issue of party decline.

Toward Democracy: A Journey. Reflections: 1940-1997, The collected works of Robert Dahl.
1997, 1160pp, $95 (cloth, 2 volumes), ISBN 0-87772-372-9

This book collects the essays and papers of Robert A. Dahl, the leading democratic theorist of our time. Written over nearly 60 years, the chapters cover a broad range of topics, including areas where Dahl's pioneering contributions have been central to the development of modern political science, such as the concept of power, dilemmas of pluralist democracy, the relations between political and economic systems, and much more. Each chapter opens with a new commentary by the author.

"[Dahl] has done more than anyone else to elucidate the preconditions, nature, and potentialities of democratic governance. The essays . . . constitute an extraordinary intellectual edific--a worthy companion piece to Dahl's many books, including his magisterial Democracy and Its Critics."--Fred I. greenstein, Princeton University

Explorations in the Evolution of Congress H. Douglas Price, 1998, 207pp, $21.95, ISBN 0-87772-384-2, book #3842 For 30 years, Douglas Price expressed some of the most interesting ideas in the field of congressional behavior. Here, collected for the first time, are his most important essays on the history and structure of Congress, essays that have had enormous influence on students of Congress everywhere.

Watching Politicians: Essays on Participant Observation,
Richard F. Fenno, Jr., 1990, 133pp, ISBN 0-87772-323-0, $11.95

In this brilliant case study, Fenno, America's leading practitioner of participant observation, reflects on how the press and political scientists reacted when George Bush chose Dan Quayle to be his vice president–and on his personal dilemma as a scholar with a wealth of information about a little known, much criticized nominee. Fenno draws on his unique experience to explain the enduring ethical, tactical, and methodological problems involved in studying politicians.

The New American Political (Dis)Order, an essay by Robert A. Dahl with an introduction by Austin Ranney and responses by Richard M. Abrams, David W. Brady, Patrick Chamorel, and Jack Citrin, 1994, 102pp, ISBN 0-87772- 355-9, $10.95 America's foremost political scientist analyses the current disfunction in political decision making and the breakdown in communications between citizens and their leaders. Five scholars from Berkeley and Stanford respond.

"A stimulating state of the art collection of articles on political careers in the United States of America. There are enough good ideas here to keep researchers happy for years."-- Richard F. Fenno, Jr., University of Rochester

"Excellent papers, original research. What a welcome addition to the study of American politics!"-- Charles O. Jones, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Studying political careers is a way of tracing the outlines of the structure of a political system. These essays, therefore, tell a great deal about the structure of American politics and how it is changing."-- Nelson W. Polsby, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Courts and the Political Process: Jack W. Peltason's Contributions to Political Science, Austin Ranney, ed., 1996, 139pp, $12.95, ISBN 0-87772-369-9 "Jack Peltason is a distinguished member of a generation of political scientists that inherited an intellectual tradition focused upon formal structures of government and legal doctrines and transformed the study of government by concentrating on the actual behavior of real political actors."--Nelson W. Polsby, Foreword to Courts and the Political Process: Jack W. Peltason's Contributions to Political Science "This is perhaps the best brief summary one is likely to fine of the behavioral revolution in American political science."--Harry P. Stumpf, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico "An original set of essays that, though ostensibly centering on public law, actually sweeps across much of the discipline of political science."--Walter F. Murphy, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Emeritus, Princeton University "A much deserved tribute to a giant in our discipine. Jack Peltason's contributions have been seminal, and we are all in his debt."--Henry J. Abraham, James Hart Professor of Government Affairs, University of Virginia "A fine, illuminating book."--Lawrence Baum, professor of political science, Ohio State University

The Governmental Process,
Second Edition, David B. Truman, 1992 (copyright 1951), 561pp, ISBN 0-87772-345-1, $21.95

Winner of the 1997 Leon Epstein Award for a distinguished contribution to the field. This study of political groups, their origins, and their maneuvers remains the leading source of ideas that explain outcomes in American political systems. Generations of political scientists have found this work essential to their understanding of contemporary politics.

The Press and Foreign Policy, Bernard C. Cohen, 1993 (copyright 1963), 288pp, ISBN 0-87772-346-x., $14.95 Most of the important questions concerning the impact of the press on how the public views political issues were first raised in this classic of contemporary political science including what journalists consider news and how they establish and enforce professional craft norms. Cohen's theory explaining the pattern of news coverage is the most far-reaching and persuasive in the literature.

Congressmen in Committees,
Richard F. Fenno, Jr., 1995, 302pp, ISBN 0-87772-362-1, $17.95

In this classic study, America's leading student of Congress shows how the different organizational environments of three congressional committees affect the behavior of members and shapes legislative outcomes. "A committee?s decisions," he says, "are explainable in terms of its members' goals, the constraints of its environment, its decision strategies, and ... its decision-making processes."

A founding father of the discipline, Luther Halsey Gulick became a public administration legend in the course of a lifetime devoted to civic duty and public service. He drafted the resolution establishing the American Society for Public Administration, and every important work in the field in the latter half of the twentieth century reflects his influence. A first-rate biography.