The Promise & Performance of American Democracy - Hardcover

Jon R. Bond, professor of political science at Texas A&M University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research analyzes the policy-making process and the operation of democracy in American politics. Professor Bond has published articles on presidential-congressional relations, congressional elections, and public policy in the discipline's major journals. He is coauthor of THE PRESIDENT IN THE LEGISLATIVE ARENA, and coeditor of POLARIZED POLITICS: CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT IN A PARTISAN ERA, and INSTITUTIONAL GAMES AND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT. In 1987 and 1988, Dr. Bond was An APSA Congressional Fellow, working on the staffs of Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Representative Norman Mineta. He has served as coeditor of the JOURNAL OF POLITICS, and as president of the Southern Political Science Association, the oldest regional political science association, and Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society.

Kevin Smith, Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in the fields of biology and politics, public policy, and American politics. He is the coauthor of THE PUBLIC POLICY THEORY PRIMER (Westview Press, 2009), PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: POWER AND POLITICS IN THE FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT (Oxford University Press, 2006), and of numerous articles that have appeared in SCIENCE, THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, THE JOURNAL OF POLITICS, POLITICAL RESEARCH QUARTERLY, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, and other journals.

"THE PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY incorporates the best political science scholarship in a concise and readable format that will challenge your students's preconceived notions about American politics. Regardless of whether they are cynical, patriotic or neutral, this text will provide them with the analytical tools to explore whether or not and to what extent our system functions properly."

"I believe that the Bond text is superior to most of the other American Government texts in terms of content. Its strength lies in the way that it attempts to bring current empirical research on American politics into the introductory discussion of the subject....Pedagogically I like the authors's focus on issues related to the promise and performance of American democracy."

"The three biggest strengths of the text are: it challenges students to questions the performance of the American governmental system and asks students to engage the material at a deeper level; the text uses very good examples as hooks at the beginning of each chapter that should lead to more student interest in the text; because the text uses an approach of challenging students to assess performance the text reads less like a traditional textbook that reports only the facts (which students find less appealing)."

"The books has 'a very contemporary focus, very alert to current development in political science, with no obvious political or ideological bias, and a thesis that can be used to provoke student discussion.'"

"The clarity of Bond, et. al's writing is excellent. I think the paragraphs as a whole develop consistent themes more clearly and are more 'academic' in their pitch and balance. It brings a wide wealth of knowledge together in comprehensible, but not patronizing language."