Introductory course on American Government, designed also to prepare for the College Board's CLEP subject matter exam.

American Government is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester American government course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including Insider Perspective features and a Get Connected Module that shows students how they can get engaged in the political process. The book provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of American government and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. American Government includes updated information on the 2016 presidential election.Senior Contributing AuthorsGlen Krutz (Content Lead), University of OklahomaSylvie Waskiewicz, PhD (Lead Editor)

This course provides a basic history of American social, economic, and political development from the colonial period through the Civil War. It examines the colonial heritages of Spanish and British America; the American Revolution and its impact; the establishment and growth of the new nation; and the Civil War, its background, character, and impact. Readings include writings of the period by J. Winthrop, T. Paine, T. Jefferson, J. Madison, W. H. Garrison, G. Fitzhugh, H. B. Stowe, and A. Lincoln.

Comparative politics is the systematic study and comparison of the world's political systems. The course begins by discussing the factors and categories of analysis that political scientists and important international institutions like the World Bank, NATO, and the United Nations use regularly; it ends by comparing and contrasting governments from five different regions of the world: the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Define the chief characteristics of a nation state; Identify and explain various comparative methodologies used to compare various political systems; Distinguish between unitary, federal, and confederal governmental models; Compare and contrast political cultures in selected countries; Compare and contrast political socialization in selected countries; Describe and explain patterns of representation and participation in selected countries; Compare and contrast the roles and functions of political parties in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of interest groups in selected countries; Identify and explain governance and policy-making in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of the executive in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of the judicial branch in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of the bureaucracy and the policy process in selected countries; Describe and explain the political economy and development in selected countries; Identify and explain political challenges and changing agendas in selected countries. (Political Science 221)

This book is written for you – students early in college – to provide a guide to the founding documents and structures of governance that form the United States political system. This book is called American Government and Politics in Principle and Practice because you will notice that what has been inscribed in law has not always been applied in practice-particularly for indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, those formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the working class within U.S. society.

In designing this book, we have two goals. First, we want you to know what the founding documents say and how our political institutions were formed. Second, and as important, we season the book with questions for you to investigate and learn concerning who has been excluded and who has benefited from the political structures of the United States. We will examine the contradictions and tensions that erupt, and how social movements have transformed our political landscape. We offer a range of questions/assignments that will allow you to help us keep this book up to date.

You will read, across time, tensions between the federal and state governments, between individual and collective rights, between those with power and those without, and you will notice when and for whom rights have been protected by our government and when and for whom rights have been trampled. We will explore the historical context that informs significant political movements and structures of the present. This is history riddled with racism, xenophobia, sexism and imperialism, and also a vibrant history of struggle where groups of people imagine, fight for, and often achieve a more equitable society.