Debating Reform: Conflicting Perspectives on How to Fix the American Political System

Third Auflage
ISBN: 978-1-5063-3364-9
Verlag: CQ PR

Buch, Englisch, 424 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 567 g

Rather than simply focusing on how institutions work, this reader helps students to understand how they can be made to work better. Each pro or con essay considers a concrete proposal for reforming the political system. By focusing on institutions, rather than liberal or conservative public policies, students tend to leave behind ideology and grapple with claims and evidence to draw their own conclusions and build their own arguments.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ellis, Richard J.

Nelson, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Contributors
The Constitution
1 Resolved, Article V should be revised to make it easier to amend the Constitution and to call a constitutional convention
PRO: - SANFORD LEVINSON
CON: - DAVID E. KYVIG
Democracy
2 Resolved, American democracy needs less sunshine and more closed-door negotiations
PRO: - BRUCE E. CAIN
CON: - GARY D. BASS, DANIELLE BRIAN, AND NORMAN EISEN
Culture
3 Resolved, Andrew Jackson should be removed from the $20 bill
PRO: - BRIAN A. WEINER
CON: - MARK CHEATHEM
Federalism
4 Resolved, Congress should restore each state’s freedom to set its drinking age
PRO: - JOHN MCCARDELL
CON: - JAMES C. FELL
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
5 Resolved, Congress should pass the Democracy Restoration Act restoring the right to vote in federal elections to people with criminal records
PRO: - ERIKA L. WOOD
CON: - ROGER CLEGG
6 Resolved, states should enact voter ID laws and reduce early voting
PRO: - MICHAEL NELSON
CON: - KEITH GUNNAR BENTELE AND ERIN O’BRIEN
Political Participation
7 Resolved, The United States should adopt a national initiative and referendum
PRO: - TODD DONOVAN
CON: - RICHARD J. ELLIS
8 Resolved, The United States should adopt compulsory voting
PRO: - MARTIN P. WATTENBERG
CON: - JASON BRENNAN
Campaigns and Elections
9 Resolved, Congress should remove the caps on the amount that individuals can contribute to candidates for federal office
PRO: - JOHN SAMPLES
CON: - RICHARD BRIFFAULT
Political Parties
10 Resolved, political parties should nominate candidates for president in a national primary
PRO: - CAROLINE J. TOLBERT
CON: - DAVID P. REDLAWSK
Interest Groups
11 Resolved, Congress should bring back earmarks
PRO: - SCOTT A. FRISCH AND SEAN Q KELLY
CON: - JEFFREY LAZARUS
House of Representatives
12 Resolved, proportional representation should be adopted for U.S. House elections
PRO: - DOUGLAS J. AMY
CON: - BRENDAN J. DOHERTY
13 Resolved, the redistricting process should be nonpartisan
PRO: - ELAINE C. KAMARCK
CON: - JUSTIN BUCHLER
Senate
14 Resolved, the Senate should represent people, not states
PRO: - BRUCE I. OPPENHEIMER
CON: - JOHN J. PITNEY JR.
15 Resolved, Senate Rule XXII should be amended so that filibusters can be ended by a majority vote
PRO: - STEVEN S. SMITH
CON: - WENDY J. SCHILLER
Presidency
16 Resolved, the electoral college should be abolished
PRO: - GEORGE C. EDWARDS III
CON: - GARY L. GREGG II
17 Resolved, the Twenty-Second Amendment should be repealed
PRO: - DAVID A. CROCKETT
CON: - MICHAEL J. KORZI
Bureaucracy
18 Resolved, bring back the bureaucrats
PRO: - JOHN DILULIO
CON: - BRAD DEWEES
Judiciary
19 Resolved, the terms of Supreme Court justices should be limited to eighteen years
PRO: - DAVID KAROL
CON: - WARD FARNSWORTH
Domestic Policy
20 Resolved, Americans should receive four more years of free public education
PRO: - ROBERT SAMUELS
CON: - NEAL MCCLUSKEY
National Security and Foreign Policy
21 Resolved, national security would be strengthened by requiring the government to keep fewer secrets and become more transparent
PRO: - MICHAEL COLARESI
CON: - STEPHEN F. KNOTT

Über Autor(innen)

Nelson, Michael
Michael Nelson is Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College and a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. A former editor of the Washington Monthly, his most recent books include Trump’s First Year (2018); The Elections of 2016 (2018); The Evolving Presidency: Landmark Documents (2019); The American Presidency: Origins and Development (with Sidney M. Milkis, 2011); and Governing at Home: The White House and Domestic Policymaking (with Russell B. Riley, 2011). Nelson has contributed to numerous journals, including the Journal of Policy History, Journal of Politics, and Political Science Quarterly. He also has written multiple articles on subjects as varied as baseball, Frank Sinatra, and C. S. Lewis. More than fifty of his articles have been anthologized in works of political science, history, and English composition. His 2014 book, Resilient America: Electing Nixon, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government, won the American Political Science Association’s Richard E. Neustadt Award for best book on the presidency published that year; and his 2006 book with John Lyman Mason, How the South Joined the Gambling Nation, won the Southern Political Science Association’s V.O. Key Award.

Ellis, Richard J.
Richard J. Ellis is Mark O. Hatfield Professor of Politics at Willamette University. His books include The Development of the American Presidency (2015; 2nd ed.); Debating Reform: Conflicting Perspectives on How to Fix the American Political System (with Michael Nelson, 3nd ed., 2016); Judging the Boy Scouts of America: Gay Rights, Freedom of Association, and the Dale Case (2014); Judging Executive Power: Sixteen Supreme Court Cases That Have Shaped the American Presidency (2009); and Presidential Travel: The Journey from George Washington to George W. Bush (2008). In 2008 he was named the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Oregon Professor of the Year.