A look at the US legislative process, including the various detours or shortcuts a major bill is likely to encounter. The process is illustrated with real-life examples through a series of case studies on national service legislation, regulatory overhaul, the omnibus drug bill, and more.

Product Description: Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 brought with it a major shift in the composition of the U.S. Congress for the first time in several decades. The subsequent introduction of an enormous amount of new legislation sparked debate among many political observers that a new coalition was being built in American politics and that a significant change in the issues on the agenda before Congress heralded a Republican realignment...read more

Product Description: A course in learner training which enables students to become more effective learners and take on greater responsibility for their own learning. This Audio CD contains all listening material from the Learner's Book.

Party Wars is the first book to describe how the ideological gulf now separating the two major parties developed and how today’s fierce partisan competition affects the political process and national policy.Barbara Sinclair traces the current ideological divide to changes in the Republican party in the 1970s and 1980s, including the rise of neoconservativism and the Religious Right. Because of these historical developments, Democratic and Republican voters today differ substantially in what they consider good public policy, and so do the politicians they elect.Polarization has produced institutional consequences in the House of Representatives and in the Senate—witness the majority party’s threat in 2004–2005 to use the “nuclear option” of abolishing the filibuster. The president’s strategies for dealing with Congress have also been affected, raising the price of compromise with the opposing party and allowing a Republican president to govern largely from the ideological right. Other players in the national policy community—interest groups, think tanks, and the media—have also joined one or the other partisan “team.”Party Wars puts all the parts together to provide the first government-wide survey of the impact of polarization on national politics. Sinclair pinpoints weaknesses in the highly polarized system and offers several remedies.

"Perhaps the leading scholar of the postreform Congress, Barbara Sinclair has produced a superb combination of description and analysis that captures the Democratic-dominated House of the 1980s and early 1990s. Weaving together principal-agent theory, solid behavioral techniques, and bushels of insider observations, Sinclair's depiction of the U.S. House in the O'Neill-Wright-Foley era should become the standard portrait of this institution."--Burdett Loomis, Congress & The PresidencyRecently plagued by gridlock, huge deficits, and deep policy differences between the president and congressional majorities, Congress has often been the target of relentless and bitter criticism. In this context, Sinclair asks, how has the House not only performed its legislative functions but also managed to enhance its role in the American political system? In Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmakers, Sinclair traces the emergence of a House majority party leadership that is highly active and deeply involved in multiple aspects of the legislative process, and yet one that leads by means of a participatory and inclusive style."This book is a most remarkable undertaking. It represents a scholarly research effort that has stretched over nearly two decades. It has involved the getting and maintaining an unusual level of access to the workings of Democratic party leadership and yet an ability to remain sufficiently distant to develop the broader perspective. The end result is clearly a most important--if not the most important--book on party leadership and Congress."--American Political Science Review"Applying a perceptive and disciplined mind to an impressive knowledge of the topic, the author provides a detailed and instructive account of the relations between majority leaders and members in the postreform House, as well as valuable evidence and insights on such matters as the blending of substance and politics in decision making, current patterns of relationships with lobbyists, and the emerging public role of the Speaker."--Political Science Quarterly

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Activate Your English focuses clearly on communication skills and learning strategies.

Product Description: Book by Sinclair, Barbara

Book by Sinclair, Professor Barbara