Current Debates in American Government

Ideal for introductory courses, Current Debates in American Government presents sixty-nine lively readings drawn from major news sources including The Economist, The Washington Post, NPR News, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. The authors selected these readings to introduce students to key debates in American politics and to help them better understand how these issues and debates affect their own lives.

Current Debates in American Government is a perfect companion to Morone/Kersh's textbook, By The People: Debating American Government, Second Edition, (OUP, 2015), as its selections are organized thematically into sections that correspond to the chapters in the text.

Ryan Emenaker is Professor of Political Science at College of the Redwoods.

James A. Morone is the John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University.

PART I. IDEAS AND RIGHTS
SECTION 1. THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN POLITICS
Adam Davidson (2012). "Why are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?" Planet Money Blog, NPR News, March, 16, 2012.
Chris Cillizza (2008). "The Failure of the Bailout Bill," The Washington Post, September 29, 2008.
Charles Wilson (2005). "The Other Movement That Rosa Parks Inspired," The Washington Post, Oct 30, 2005.
SECTION 2: THE IDEAS THAT SHAPE AMERICA
Fredrick Douglass (1852). "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
Howard Zinn (1987). "Some Truths are not Self-Evident," The Nation, August 1, 1987, Vol. 245, pp. 87-88.
Nicholas Kristof (2014). "It's the Canadian Dream Now," The New York Times, May 14, 2014.
Clifford May (2012). "American Exceptionalism and Its Discontents," National Review, November 1, 2012.
George Will (2014) "Progressives are Wrong about the Essence of the Constitution" The Washington Post, April 16, 2014.
SECTION 3: THE CONSTITUTION
James Read and Alan Gibson (2011). "The Conversation: 4 Myths about the Constitution," Sacramento Bee, January 23, 2011.
Robert Dahl (2001). Ch. 3 "The Constitution as a Model: An American Illusion," How Democratic is
the American Constitution? Yale University Press. pp. 41-72.
Adam Liptak (2012). " "'We the People" Loses Appeal with People Around World," The New York Times, February 6, 2012.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comments before Senate Hearing 112-137 "Considering the
Role of Judges Under the Constitution of the United States," October 5, 2011.
Louis Seidman (2012) "Let's Give Up on the Constitution," The New York Times, Dec. 30, 2012.
Louis Fisher (2011). "Crush Videos: a Constructive Dialogue," The National Law Journal, Feb. 21, 2011.
SECTION 4: FEDERALISM AND NATIONALISM
George Annas (2005). "Jumping Frogs, Endangered Toads, and California's Medical-Marijuana Law," New England Journal of Medicine, November 2005.
Governing Magazine (2013). "Could Gay Marriage, Guns, and Marijuana Lead to a Fragmented United States of America?" Governing Magazine, June 2013.
Michael Powell (2010). "Leery of Washington, Alaska Feasts on Its Dollars," The New York Times, Aug. 18, 2010.
Lori Riverstone-Newell (2014). Chapter 1 "When Local Activism Challenges Higher Authority," Renegade Cities, Public Policy, and the Dilemmas of Federalism, First Forum Press, Boulder. pp. 1-7.
SECTION 5: CIVIL LIBERTIES
Jonathan Tobin (2014). "Freedom for Religion, Not From It," Commentary, May 5, 2014.
Nina Totenberg (2010). High Court Struggles with Military Funerals Case," NPR News, October 6, 2010.
Riley v. California (2014). Excerpts from the majority and dissenting opinions.
The Economist (2014). "The Slow Death of the Death Penalty," The Economist, April 26 2014.
SECTION 6: THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
Cass Sunstein (2004). "Did Brown Matter?" The New Yorker, May 3, 2004.
Jose Antonio Vargas (2012). "Not Legal, Not Leaving," Time, June 25, 2012.
Stokely Carmichael (1966) "What We Want," The New York Review of Books, September 22, 1966. Vol. 7. pp. 5-6, 8.
Josh Lohmer (2009). "An Issue of Sovereignty." National Council of State Legislatures.
Richard Goldstein (2005). "Fred Korematsu, 86, Dies; Lost Key Suit on Internment," The New York Times, April 1, 2005.
Jennifer Ludden (2010) "Despite New Law, Gender Salary Gap Persists," NPR News, April 19, 2010.
PART II: POLITICAL BEHAVIOR
SECTION 7: POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Laura Seay (2014). "Does Slacktivism Work?" The Monkey Cage Blog, March 12, 2014.
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2009). "Introduction," Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Penguin. pp. 1-14.
Howard Zinn (1971). "The Problem is Civil Obedience," Speech given at John Hopkins University.
Russell Dalton. (2008). "Citizenship and the Transformation of American Society," The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics, CQ Press. pp. 1-16.
SECTION 8: PUBLIC OPINION
Peter Schrag (2011). "Dysfunction: Maybe it's What the Voters Want," Sacramento Bee, June 14, 2011.
Benjamin Ginsberg (2008). "The Perils of Polling," April, 2008.
Robert Pear (2012). "White House Works to Shape Debate Over Health Law," The New York Times, March 9, 2012.
SECTION 9: THE MEDIA
Robert Kaiser (2014). "The Bad News about the News," The Brookings Essay, October 16, 2014.
Cass Sunstein (2007). Republic 2.0, Princeton University Press. 2007. Excerpts.
Amy Mitchell (2014). "Political Polarization and Media Habits," PEW Research, October 21, 2014
Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (2013). "Obama, the Puppet Master." Politico, February 18, 2013.
Shana Gadarian (2014). "How Sensationalist TV Stories on Terrorism Make Americans More Hawkish," The Monkey Cage Blog, October 9, 2014.
Justin Wolfers (2014). "Perceptions Haven't Caught Up to Decline in Crime," The New York Times, September 16, 2014.
SECTION 10: CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS
Charlie Savage (2012). "Justice Department Blocks Texas on Photo ID for Voting," The New York Times, March 13, 2012.
Clarke Canfield (2010). "Portland, Maine, Weighs Letting Noncitizens Vote," Associated Press, Oct. 23, 2010.
Jamelle Bouie (2013). "Making Voting Constitutional," The American Prospect, January 30, 2013.
"A President by Popular Vote," LA Times, October 5, 2012.
"How to Expand the Voter Roles," The New York Times, April 6, 2012.
Peter Baker and Eric Lipton (2012). "In a Tight Race, Obama Draws on the Levers of His Power," The New York Times, September 19, 2012.
SECTION 11: POLITICAL PARTIES
Peter J. Wallison and Joel M. Gora (2009). Better Parties, Better Government, The AEI Press.
Ambreen Ali (2010). "Can Activists Win by Losing?" Congress.org, August 12, 2008.
Alan Greenblatt (2013). "Why Parisians Can't Kick the Hypocrisy Habit," NPR News, June 14, 2013.
Gary Johnson. (2014)."More Choices in Presidential Debates: Americans Deserve to Hear Candidates of Third Parties," The Washington Times, April 18, 2014.
SECTION 12: INTEREST GROUPS
Meta Gold (2014). "Ready for a Surprise? Money Does Equal Access in Washington," The Washington Post, March 11, 2014.
Jodi Rudoren and Aron Pilhofer (2006). "Hiring Federal Lobbyists, Towns Learn Money Talks," The New York Times, July 2, 2006.
Dara Strolovitch (2007). Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics, University of Chicago Press. Excerpts.
Jonathan Salant and Lizzie O'Leary (2009)."Six Lobbyists per Lawmaker Work on Health Overhaul," Bloomberg News, August 14, 2009.
PART III: POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
SECTION 13: CONGRESS
Ari Shapiro (2013). "Would the U.S. Be Better Off With a Parliament?" NPR News, October 12, 2013.
Adam Liptak (2013). "Smaller States Find Outsize Clout Growing in Senate," The New York Times, March 11, 2013.
Annie Lowrey (2010). "What if Senators Represented People by Income or Race, Not by State?" The Washington Post, February 7, 2011.
Chris Cillizza (2013). "People Hate Congress. But Most Incumbents Get Re-elected. What Gives?" The Washington Post, May 9, 2013.
Jake Sherman (2011). "Cuts Hit Home for Boehner, Cantor," POLITICO, February 28, 2011.
SECTION 14: THE PRESIDENCY
George Will (2007). "Congress's Unused War Powers," The Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2007.
Anita Kumar (2013). "Obama Turning to Executive Power to Get What He Wants," McClatchy News, March 19, 2013.
Allen Greenblatt (2013). "Why Obama (And Any President) Fails To Meet Expectations," NPR News, March 12, 2013.
Norm Ornstein (2014). "The Most Enduring Myth About the Presidency," National Journal, April 22, 2014.
SECTION 15: BUREAUCRACY
Douglas Amy, "The Case for Bureaucracy," Government is Good, 2007.
Matthew Spalding (2010). "A Republic if You Want it," National Review, February 8. 2010.
Robert Reich (1997) Locked in the Cabinet, Knopf. pp. 37-9, 41-4, 51-2, 108-110.
SECTION 16: THE JUDICIAL BRANCH
Donald F. Kettl (2010). "Why States and Localities Are Watching the Lower Federal Courts," Governing, October 2010.
Ryan Emenaker (2012). "High Court not Final Say on U.S. Law," Times-Standard, April 12, 2012.
Louis Fisher (2014). "Preface," On the Supreme Court: Without Illusion and Idolatry, Paradigm Publishing. pp. ix-xiv.
NPR (2009). "Supreme Court Appears Divided in Cross Case," Oct. 7, 2009.
Jennifer Senior (2013) "In conversation: Antonin Scalia," New York Magazine, October 6, 2013.