Understanding American Politics provides a unique introduction to the contemporary political landscape of the United States. Read a blog post by the authors Stephen Brooks, Donald E. Abelson, and Melissa Haussman:
In a country awash in public opinion polls, it may seem arbitrary to single out one for special attention. That said, a 2023 poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. found that about two-thirds of Americans said they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics. The survey also found that when asked to identify a strength of their country’s political system, over half of Americans either refused to answer or said “nothing.” In a country that has long and proudly thought of itself as the world’s greatest democracy, how is it possible that so many citizens have come to feel so estranged from their political system?
Answers to this question are plentiful. Google the words “American politics broken” and you will find pages of articles, books, blog posts, and videos that offer explanations. Many of them are dire, as is this one from Nicholas Goldberg, one of the foremost commentators on American politics over the past four decades:
The United States is at a crisis point. Elections are under fire, voting rights are at risk, book banning is spreading, the Supreme Court is losing credibility and a new reckoning is underway on race relations. The country is bitterly divided, climate change is bearing down and Americans on all sides are losing faith in government.
Goldberg’s solution to the rancor and division that have gripped American politics in recent times—or at least part of what he sees as a path back to civility, which is already a pretty good start—is one with which we concur. Education. “Now,” he argues, “is when we need citizens who understand what is happening around them and who have a context and a framework in which to view the country, its principles, its successes and failures, and its place in the world.” In the swirl of disinformation, mistrust, and acrimony that is the American political conversation, some hope may lie in more and better education about how the system of government works and how to assess the plausibility of the arguments, claims, and counter claims in an era of deep-fake video and audio technology and AI-generated misinformation.
This goes for non-Americans as well as Americans. What thinking person among us, in Canada or wherever we live, is indifferent to the United States? How can anyone be indifferent to a country that is still the world’s largest economy, whose dollar is still by far the world’s dominant currency, whose military spending exceeds that of the next ten countries combined, and whose cultural footprint in the world is without equal? These are not American boasts: they are facts. In order to understand our world, there is much that we need to know. And toward the top of that list is why and how things happen in American politics and in that country’s system of government.
The aim of this book is to help readers reach this understanding or, at least, to think about American politics and government in ways that prioritize facts (we believe that these exist!) and that reject lazy stereotyped thinking. We attempt to do this in a spirit that is objective, but not dispassionate, and certainly not indifferent. It is hard to be dispassionate about a country whose civic canon includes the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, or President Barack Obama’s remarks on the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March. Indeed, much of the criticism targeted at America has been and continues to be rooted in the belief that the country has failed to live up to the grand ideals and expectations that its citizens, their leaders, and people throughout the world have associated with American democracy.
About the Authors
Stephen Brooks is a professor of political science at the University of Windsor.
Donald E. Abelson is an academic director at the Wilson College of Leadership and Civic Engagement and a professor of political science at McMaster University.
Melissa Haussman is a professor of political science at Carleton University.
Read an excerpt of Understanding American Politics, Third Edition.
