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This text explores the workings of American government using two recurrent themes - that politics arises from conflict and that the rules of government help determine who wins and who loses. The text develops these twin themes using clear, powerful writing and vivid examples that engage student interest.

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Although a great deal is known about the United States Congress, the differences and similarities between it and the legislatures and parliaments of other countries have not been extensively studied. This book--by a distinguished group of legislative specialists from ten countries--fills this gap by presenting legislative research from a comparative, cross-national perspective.Consisting of fourteen essays, this volume incorporates major areas of legislative research, including studies of recruitment of legislators and an overview of their careers, the evolution of legislatures, and the electoral systems by which legislatures are chosen. Each contributor reviews the principal research findings and emphasizes those concepts and methods that facilitate comparative research. The book assesses the state of knowledge in regard to U.S., European, Asian, and Latin American legislatures. The introductory chapter by the editors identifies how to comparatively test research findings while taking into account data availability and questions of conceptual equivalence. Each chapter provides an extensive bibliography, making the book an excellent guide to literature on legislative research. The contributors are David T. Canon, John M. Carey, Gary W. Cox, Frantisek Formanek, John R. Hibbing, Ewa Karpowicz, Junko Kato, Sadafumi Kawato, Michael Laver, Gary F. Moncrief, Chan Wook Park, Werner J. Patzelt, Bjorn Erik Rasch, Kenneth A. Shepsle, Steven S. Smith, and Rick K. Wilson.This book is designed for faculty and graduate students in political science and will also be of interest to members of legislative research staffs in this country and overseas, and to specialists on legislatures in history and law.Gerhard Loewenberg is University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor of Political Science. D. Roderick Kiewiet is Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Political Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Peverill Squire is Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa. (view table of contents)

A concise and provocative introduction to state legislative politics, State Legislatures Today is designed as a supplement for state and local government courses and upper level courses on legislative politics. The book examines state legislatures and state lawmakers, putting them in historical context, showing how they have evolved over the years, and differentiating them from Congress. It covers state legislative elections (including the impact of redistricting, candidate recruitment, etc.), the changing job description of state legislators, legislatures as organizations, the process by which legislation gets produced, and the influences upon legislators.Many things have happened in the five years since the popular first edition. Significant developments addressed in the new edition include:1. The rise of the Tea Party Movement, which has contributed to the stalemate in Congress and greatly influenced legislative politics in many states. Indeed, the Tea Party’s greatest impact has been in state capitals, not in Washington, DC.2. A marked increase in one-party government, resulting in greatest number of states with one-party government in at least fifty years. One-party government, of course, allows for dramatic policy shifts. Thus, governors and state legislatures have been able to make significant policy decisions while Congress and the President have been gridlocked.3. A dramatic increase in the use of recall elections (Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and referenda to challenge legislative policy decisions (Idaho, South Dakota, Ohio, and Washington), signaling a growing frustration with legislative policies in some states. Recall elections and referenda only occur at the state level.4. Changes in term limits and budgeting laws in California directly affecting the work of the legislature in the largest state in the Union. 5. Highly visible state legislative policies on hot-button issues such as gun control, taxation, public employee benefits, teachers’ unions, taxation, abortion, immigration and education reform. The conflicts generated by these debates have produced incidents that captured national attention, perhaps most notably when Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate fled to Illinois to break quorum and prevent the Republicans from passing a measure limiting public unions in the state.6. Efforts to profoundly alter the structure of some state legislatures, such as a measure to substantially reduce the number of legislative seats in Pennsylvania and a proposed initiative to radically increase the number of seats in California.7. The culmination of a redistricting cycle in 2012 which alters the nature of many legislative districts and the course of politics and policy over the next decade. 8. A rare and historic “wave election” in 2010 that saw the Republican Party gain more than 700 seats in state legislatures.