GOVT 2011 Transition Guide

Overall Changes

  • A new chapter feature—”Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis”—helps explain the current economic downturn and the ensuing economic policies. National Security boxes have been removed throughout.
  • Fully updated to include coverage and analysis of the Obama presidency, the 111th Congress, and political events of 2009.
  • Fully half of all photos are new.Critical-thinking questions have been integrated into many of the photo captions.

Chapter 1

  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Making and Fixing an Economic Mess
  • New box The Rest of the World: Should We Ever Impose Our Values on Other Countries?
  • New Key Terms: Capitalism, Progressivism
  • Figure 1.1: Distribution of the U.S. Population by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2000 to 2050 updated
  • The discussion of private ownership has been rewritten.
  • New box Join the Debate: Should Wal-Mart Address Social Issues?
  • New subsection on Liberals and Progressives
  • New Figure 1.3: A Two-Dimensional Political Classification

Chapter 2

  • Reworked opening America at Odds box on the right to bear arms.
  • A new subsection on Republicanism in the early states.
  • A new paragraphs on the problem of the early states’ ability to enter into agreements with foreign powers and print money.
  • An updated box The Rest of the World: Russia’s Short-Lived Flirtation with Democracy.
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Keep Printing Money!
  • New box Join the Debate: Is the Death Penalty a Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

Chapter 3

  • Learning Objective 4 changed from “Describe developments in federalism under the Bush administration’ to “Describe developments in federalism in recent years.”
  • Table 3.1: Countries that have a Federal System Today updated through 2009.
  • New box The Rest of the World: Canadian versus American Federalism
  • Mention of the Defense of Marriage Act added.
  • New box Perception versus Reality: Did the Civil War Destroy the Economy of the South?
  • New paragraph on Roosevelt’s threat to pack the court to be more favorable to federal action.
  • Deleted sub-section Was the Expansion of National Powers Inevitable?
  • Deleted sub-section Federalism and the Bush Administration, consolidating some of the information within the previous section.
  • New sub-section Federalism and the Economic Crisis.
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Obama’s Huge Stimulus Bill.
  • Definition for fiscal federalism rewritten.
  • Section Bridging the Tenth Amendment—Fiscal Federalism renamed Using Federal Grants to Control the States
  • New box Join the Debate: Should the Federal Government Guarantee State Debts?

Chapter 4

  • New America at Odds Should Government Entities Enjoy Freedom of Speech?
  • A new paragraph on economic liberties and a new box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Do We Lose Liberties When the Government Changes the Rules?
  • A new paragraph on the public’s opinion on school vouchers.
  • Key Terms and discussion of espionage, sabotage, treason, and fighting words deleted.
  • New box The Rest of the World: Libel Tourism: A British Growth Industry.
  • New box Join the Debate: Should the Use of Cameras in Public Places be Regulated?
  • New projections on the future of the Supreme Court’s tendencies under the Obama administration within the Abortion and Politics section
  • New box Perception versus Reality: Obama’s Antiterrorism Stance Compared with Bush’s

Chapter 5

  • New America at Odds Should Employers be Able to Demand that Their Employees Speak Only English?
  • Section on busing streamlined.
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Stabilizing the Housing Sector and Helping Minorities, Too
  • Section on Women in American Politics Today has been reworked and updated through 2009.
  • Figure 5.1: Hispanics Living in the United States by Place of Origin updated.
  • Section on Immigrants’ Rights deleted and redirected to a discussion in Chapter 15.
  • New box Join the Debate: Are Admissions at Top Schools Unfair to Asian Americans?
  • Key Terms racial profiling and equal employment opportunity deleted.
  • Section on Gay Men and Lesbians thoroughly updated, the same-sex marriage discussion in particular.
  • New box Perception versus Reality: Obama’s Election Means that Affirmative Action is Obsolete
  • Section on state actions on affirmative action has been updated.

Chapter 6

  • Reworked America at Odds box
  • Figure 6.1: Profiles of Selected Interest Groups updated
  • Updated section on Labor Interest Groups.
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: How the Financial Industry has Affected Federal Policy
  • Figure 6.2: Union Membership, 1952 to Present updated
  • New box Join the Debate: Should We Punish Countries that Don’t Limit Carbon Emissions?
  • Sub-heading The Effects of Lobbying deleted and content integrated into Lobbying
  • New section Lobbyists and the Obama Administration

Chapter 7

  • Chapter has been extensively revised and reorganized.
  • New Learning Objective “Describe the current status of the two major parties.”
  • Chapter reorganized to cover How American Political Parties Are Structured before The Role of Third Parties in a Two-Party System.
  • New America at Odds Should the Republican Party Change Its Views?
  • Figure 7.1: A Time Line of U.S. Political Parties updated
  • Revised section From the Civil War to the Great Depression to discuss the Populist movement.
  • New sub-section The Party in Government: Developing Issues
  • New box Perception versus Reality: The Youth Vote Elected Barack Obama
  • New sub-section Red States versus Blue States
  • New map on the 2008 election results
  • Redrawn Figure 7.2: The Effect of Third Parties on Vote Distribution, 1848-1992 to make the impact of third parties on election outcomes more clear
  • Deleted Figure 7.3: The Theoretical Structure of the American Political Party
  • For Critical Analysis added to Join the Debate: Are National Party Conventions Worth the Cost?
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Partisan Politics More than Ever
  • New box The Rest of the World: Re-Branding Political Parties in the United Kingdom

Chapter 8

  • New America at Odds Is the 1965 Voting Rights Act Obsolete?
  • Section on Opinion Leaders updated
  • New box The Rest of the World: An Improved Image of the United States Abroad?
  • Section on Peer Groups streamlined
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: The Public’s Complicated Attitude toward Healthcare Reform
  • Revised Perceptions versus Reality feature to include more public opinion information.
  • For Critical Analysis added to Join the Debate: Voter Fraud

Chapter 9

  • New Learning Objective “Describe how the Internet has transformed political campaigns.”
  • New America at Odds Are Early Primaries Really Such a Bad Thing?
  • Winner-take-all system definition rewritten
  • New box Join the Debate: Should D.C. Residents Have a Representative?
  • Section The Professional Campaign Organization updated to discuss Obama
  • Role of “web consultant” added to Figure 9.3: A Typical Presidential Campaign Organization
  • New box The Rest of the World: European Students Learn U.S. Campaign Methods
  • New section The Internet Campaign
  • What it Costs to Win section extensively revised and updated throughout
  • Table 9.1: Top Industries and Other Groups Contributing Funds in the 2008 Presidential Election Cycle updated
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: The Great Recession in the 2008 Presidential Elections

Chapter 10

  • New America at Odds Can We Do Without Newspapers?
  • New box The Rest of the World: China’s Mastery of Internet Censorship
  • For Critical Analysis added to Join the Debate: Is the Press Living Up to Its Role as a “Watchdog”? and the box has been rewritten
  • Figure 10.1: Media Usage by Consumers, 1988 to Present with a new line added for Internet Services
  • New paragraph added on concentration of ownership in media
  • Key term changed from “attack ad” to “personal attack ad”
  • Section on Talk Radio—The Wild West of the Media rewritten
  • Section on Political News and Campaigns on the Web rewritten
  • New box Perception versus Reality: Twitter and Tweets—Much Ado About Nothing?

Chapter 11

  • New America at Odds Should it Take Sixty Senators to Pass Important Legislation?
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Bailing Out the Banks—Big Time
  • Perception versus Reality: Congressional Oversight feature updated to discuss the 111th Congress.
  • For Critical Analysis added to Join the Debate: Should “Earmarks” be Banned?
  • The Budget Process and the 2008 Elections section deleted

Chapter 12

  • Updated throughout to discuss the first year of Obama’s presidency
  • New Learning Objective 4 “Describe key areas of advantage for Congress and for the president in their respective institutional relationships.”
  • New America at Odds Just How Liberal is President Obama?
  • For Critical Analysis added to Join the Debate: A Foreign-Born President?
  • New box The Rest of the World: When the Head of State is Not the Head of Government
  • Section on Veto Power updated for the Obama presidency
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Has Obama Deferred to Congress Too Much?
  • Figure 12.1: Presidential Success Records updated through 2008
  • New box Perception versus Reality: Obama and Open Government
  • Section on the President’s Cabinet updated for Obama administration
  • Table 12.3: The Executive Office of the President as of 2009 updated

Chapter 13

  • New box The Rest of the World: Mexico’s Security Problem—Mostly Tied to Its Drug Wars
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: Changing the Health Care Spending Mix
  • New box Join the Debate: The Attorney General—Independent or a Political Ally?
  • The chief performance officer role created by Obama added to the discussion
  • An Expanding Bureaucracy section has been updated to discuss the huge new spending programs implemented under Obama in response to the economic crisis.
  • Updated Figure 13.1: Government Employment at the Local, State, and National Levels
  • Revised Figure 13.2: The Organization of the Federal Government

Chapter 14

  • New America at OddsAre There Prisoners We Must Detain without Trial?
  • New box The Rest of the World: Asian Countries Finally Get Jury Trials
  • New box Perception versus Reality: The Supreme Court Legislates from the Bench
  • Covers Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
  • The Standing to Sue section has been rewritten and includes 2009 examples.
  • Updated Figure 14.3: The Number of Supreme Court Opinions
  • Updated Table 14.1: Backgrounds of United States Supreme Court Justices Through 2009

Chapter 15

  • This chapter now covers Health Care, Energy, and the Economy, with the social welfare and crime and drug sections replaced.
  • New America at OddsIs Cap-and-Trade a Helpful Way to Address Global Warming?
  • New box Join the Debate: Should Unauthorized Immigrants be Given a Path to Citizenship?
  • New box Our Government’s Response to the Economic Crisis: How to Deal with the Looming Deficit Problem
  • Two new Learning Objectives: “Discuss the issue of health-care funding and recent proposals for universal health insurance” and “Summarize the issues of energy independence, global warming, and cap-and-trade legislation.”
  • Updated Table 15.1: Tax Rates for Single Persons and Married Couples (2009)
  • Updated Table 15.2: The Public Debt

Chapter 16

  • New America at Odds How Much of a Threat Are the Russians?
  • New box Join the Debate: Can We Tolerate a Nuclear Iran?
  • Updated and rewritten sections on Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea and a new section on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in place of the previous edition’s look at Russia.
  • New Learning Objective: “Describe the principal issues dividing the Israelis and the Palestinians and the solutions proposed by the international community.”