Christine Barbour 
AmGov [EPUB ebook] 
Long Story Short

Acknowledgments
Read This First (Or Nothing Else Will Make Sense)
Chapter 1: Politics and Citizenship
Coming to Terms: Politics, Government, and Economics
Political-Economic Systems
This Book’s Profound Bias
American Political Culture
American Political Ideologies
Political Narratives and the Media
Mediated Citizenship
Chapter 2: The United States’ Founding
Classical Liberalism, the Social Contract, and the Declaration of Independence
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitutional Convention
Ratification
Translating Basic Constitutional Principles Into a New Government
Federalism
The Evolution of Federalism
Chapter 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
The Bill of Rights
Civil Liberties—Understanding the First Amendment
Civil Liberties—Understanding Due Process Rights
Civil Liberties—Understanding the Right to Privacy
Civil Rights—Battling Political Inequality
Civil Rights—The Case of Race
Civil Rights—The Case of Gender
The Persistence of Inequality in America
Chapter 4: The Legislative Branch
How the Constitution Structures Congress
How Congress Organizes Itself
The Congressional Role in Checks and Balances
Doing the Hard Work of Making Laws
Tensions That Challenge Congress’s Ability to Do Its Job
Congressional Elections
Who Runs and Who Wins?
The 118th Congress
Chapter 5: The Executive Branch
The Job of the American President
The Evolution of the American Presidency
Presidents, Popularity, and Congress
What Is Bureaucracy, and Why Do We Need It?
The Purpose and Organization of the White House Bureaucracy
The Purpose and Organization of the Federal Bureaucracy: The Rest of the Executive Branch
Power Plays in the Bureaucracy
Chapter 6: The Judicial Branch
Kinds of Laws
The American Legal System
Who’s Who and What’s What in a Court of Law?
Equality and the Criminal Justice System
The Constitution, Congress, and the Dual Court System
The Supreme Court
Chapter 7: Parties and Interest Groups
Parties and Interest Groups Defined
The Role of Parties in a Democracy
Party Organization and Decision Making
The Parties Today
Interest Group Basics
Interest Group Politics
Was Madison Right to Worry?
Chapter 8: Public Opinion, Campaigns, and Elections
The Quality of Public Opinion
How Do We Know What Americans Think?
How Do We Form Our Opinions?
The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Presidential Elections
The General Election and the Electoral College
Chapter 9: Media and Political Communication
Where We Get Our Information
Media Ownership and Government Regulation
What Do Journalists Do?
How Those in the Media Can Shape Political Narratives
The Stakeholders Strike Back
Imagine: How Citizens Can Reclaim the Narrative
Chapter 10: Domestic and Foreign Policy
Making Public Policy
Social Policy
Policy Making for Health Care
Economic Policy
Foreign Policy
Glossary
Index
Afterword

Christine Barbour teaches in the Political Science Department at Indiana University, and directs the department’s IU POLS DC internship program. She is a faculty liaison for the University’s dual-credit program, which delivers an online version of her Intro to American Politics class to high school students across the state. At Indiana, Professor Barbour has been a Lilly Fellow, working on a project to increase student retention in large introductory courses, and a member of the Freshman Learning Project, a university-wide effort to improve the first-year undergraduate experience. She has served on the New York Times College Advisory Board, working with other educators to develop ways to integrate newspaper reading into the undergraduate curriculum. She has won multiple teaching honors, but the two awarded by her students mean the most to her: the Indiana University Student Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Faculty and the Indiana University Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Brown Derby Award. When not teaching or writing textbooks, Professor Barbour enjoys traveling with her coauthor, blogging about food and travel, and playing with her dogs and cat. She contributes to Bloom Magazine of Bloomington and is a coauthor several cookbooks. She also makes jewelry from precious metals and rough gemstones. If she ever retires, she will open a jewelry shop in a renovated Airstream on the beach in Apalachicola, Florida, where she plans to write another cookbook and a book about the local politics, development, and fishing industry.