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The Logic of American Politics
Recipient of a 2021 McGuffey Longevity Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA)
Why does the American political system work the way it does? Find the answers in The Logic of American Politics . This best-selling text arms students with a toolkit of institutional design concepts—command, veto, agenda control, voting rules, and delegation—that help them recognize how the American political system was designed and why it works the way it does. The authors build students′ critical thinking through a simple yet powerful politics is about solving collective action problems.
Thoroughly updated to account for the most recent events and data, the Ninth Edition explores the increase in political polarization, the growing emotional involvement people have to politics, Americans’ reactions to changing demographics, the partisan politics of judicial selection, and the changing nature of presidential leadership. Revised to include the 2018 election results and analysis, this edition provides students with the tools they need to make sense of today’s government.
A Complete Teaching and Learning Package
SAGE Premium Video
Included in the interactive eBook! SAGE Premium Video boosts comprehension and bolsters analysis— featuring animations of basic American government concepts and recent news clips connected to key topics in the book. Preview a video about voter turnout .
Interactive eBook
Includes access to SAGE Premium Video, multimedia tools, and much more! Save when you bundle the interactive eBook with the new edition. Order using bundle ISBN 978-1-5443-6664-7. Learn more.
SAGE coursepacks
FREE! Easily import our quality instructor and student resources content into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Learn more.
SAGE edge
FREE online resources for students to make learning easier. See how your students benefit.
SAGE course Measure Results, Track Success
Outlined in your text and mapped to chapter learning objectives, SAGE course outcomes are crafted with specific course outcomes in mind and are vetted by advisors in the field. See how SAGE course outcomes tie in with this book’s chapter-level objectives at edge.sagepub.com/kernell9e.
CQ Press Lecture Spark
Designed to save you time and ignite student engagement, these free weekly lecture launchers focus on current event topics tied to key concepts in American government. Access this week’s topic.
Why does the American political system work the way it does? Find the answers in The Logic of American Politics . This best-selling text arms students with a toolkit of institutional design concepts—command, veto, agenda control, voting rules, and delegation—that help them recognize how the American political system was designed and why it works the way it does. The authors build students′ critical thinking through a simple yet powerful politics is about solving collective action problems.
Thoroughly updated to account for the most recent events and data, the Ninth Edition explores the increase in political polarization, the growing emotional involvement people have to politics, Americans’ reactions to changing demographics, the partisan politics of judicial selection, and the changing nature of presidential leadership. Revised to include the 2018 election results and analysis, this edition provides students with the tools they need to make sense of today’s government.
A Complete Teaching and Learning Package
SAGE Premium Video
Included in the interactive eBook! SAGE Premium Video boosts comprehension and bolsters analysis— featuring animations of basic American government concepts and recent news clips connected to key topics in the book. Preview a video about voter turnout .
Interactive eBook
Includes access to SAGE Premium Video, multimedia tools, and much more! Save when you bundle the interactive eBook with the new edition. Order using bundle ISBN 978-1-5443-6664-7. Learn more.
SAGE coursepacks
FREE! Easily import our quality instructor and student resources content into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Learn more.
SAGE edge
FREE online resources for students to make learning easier. See how your students benefit.
SAGE course Measure Results, Track Success
Outlined in your text and mapped to chapter learning objectives, SAGE course outcomes are crafted with specific course outcomes in mind and are vetted by advisors in the field. See how SAGE course outcomes tie in with this book’s chapter-level objectives at edge.sagepub.com/kernell9e.
CQ Press Lecture Spark
Designed to save you time and ignite student engagement, these free weekly lecture launchers focus on current event topics tied to key concepts in American government. Access this week’s topic.
800 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1999
49 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 3, 2018
(This is a review of the 2018 edition (8th). I couldn't get Goodreads to upload that review into my books, so I'm putting this here)
So this was the intro text I used with my first teaching of Intro at the undergraduate level in 15 years. It wasn't a bad book. It's very current, with examples from the Trump-Hillary campaign and early days of the admin. It has everything that I consider mandatory, such as Federalist 10 and 51, the Constitution, the major institutions, the forces that shape political attitudes and behavior.
If it has a bias, it is the way it structures around the ideas of Olson. The title gives it away--the logic of collective action is an abiding concern. Jargon from that way of thinking about politics is present in most chapters. It is not rigidly economic or public choice, though. Criticisms of that perspective are frequent.
I think the text is a bit dry, although I haven't seen what the students made of it yet. Still, it could be written much more vividly, choose a few more relevant or current examples, and ask better questions.
So--entirely adequate is a fair summary. And yes, I did assign the whole thing.
So this was the intro text I used with my first teaching of Intro at the undergraduate level in 15 years. It wasn't a bad book. It's very current, with examples from the Trump-Hillary campaign and early days of the admin. It has everything that I consider mandatory, such as Federalist 10 and 51, the Constitution, the major institutions, the forces that shape political attitudes and behavior.
If it has a bias, it is the way it structures around the ideas of Olson. The title gives it away--the logic of collective action is an abiding concern. Jargon from that way of thinking about politics is present in most chapters. It is not rigidly economic or public choice, though. Criticisms of that perspective are frequent.
I think the text is a bit dry, although I haven't seen what the students made of it yet. Still, it could be written much more vividly, choose a few more relevant or current examples, and ask better questions.
So--entirely adequate is a fair summary. And yes, I did assign the whole thing.
May 24, 2017
Read this for my Introduction to American Government class, while I attended that class, and from reading this book, I've learned a little bit more about politics.
February 23, 2021
The ninth edition is extremely biased.
June 4, 2023
I HATE THIS BOOK AND THE CLASS AMERICAN POLITICS!!!!!!
July 15, 2024
I used this text for a summer course, and I deserve to record it here because 1) it is a book and 2) by jove, I read it.
Overall, I did enjoy it. It was easy to understand, and the examples and explanations were very helpful. My only complaint? It was quite wordy. But that’s American politics for you.
Overall, I did enjoy it. It was easy to understand, and the examples and explanations were very helpful. My only complaint? It was quite wordy. But that’s American politics for you.
January 5, 2017
A decent "intro-to-American-politics" textbook, coquetted with game theoretic flirtations but nothing serious.
Probably not the book I was looking/hoping for (i.e., it's not setting up a game theoretic model of congress). That said, I must confess I was a little disappointed.
The title is misleading, but that's my perspective as someone researching the foundations of mathematics for a living. "The Logic of ___" implies the description of a formal system, a type theoretic calculus...this book failed to deliver. (That said, I'm probably the only person in the world with that expectation.)
Probably not the book I was looking/hoping for (i.e., it's not setting up a game theoretic model of congress). That said, I must confess I was a little disappointed.
The title is misleading, but that's my perspective as someone researching the foundations of mathematics for a living. "The Logic of ___" implies the description of a formal system, a type theoretic calculus...this book failed to deliver. (That said, I'm probably the only person in the world with that expectation.)
June 5, 2014
Read for Intro to American Politics. We covered quite a lot of the chapters. I think it was pretty good as far as textbooks go. Some odd sentence structure here and there but overall did a good job laying out the theory (first chapter) and then weaving that theory throughout the rest of the rest of the text. My professor purposefully didn't teach us the civil rights and civil liberties chapters because he thinks they're terrible and often offensive to students, so I can't vouch for those.
May 4, 2012
This was an excellent textbook that I read for PLS 100: Introduction to American Government. The textt covered a wide range of topics and although at times it provided the reader with stimulating information and examples.
May 29, 2014
Completed for my government class, this textbook is not helpful when you have a good lecturer. I wish I had been asked to read something else as my main text, but I finished the dang thing, so there.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews