America's Democratic Republic

Part of the popular “Penguin Academics” Series, America's Democratic Republic is a brief, affordable book in an accessible trade-like format that explores the clash between the democratic aspirations of the American people and the republican foundations of our Constitution.

Written with a lively, narrative style, this text traces the storyline of American government and focuses on the .long standing and inescapable tension between the country’s 18th Century republican Constitutional foundations and the democratic aspirations of the American people. The thematic framework helps students to consider American government and politics as a hybrid—rooted equally in the founder’s intentions to restrain the majority and the people’s growing demand for a more fully realized democracy. In this manner, America’s Democratic Republic provides an engaging narrative that works to diminish student apathy, quell cynicism, and inspire their reengagement in civic life.

The “Penguin Academics” series offers accessibly written, elegantly designed, and highly affordable trade-format books by pre-eminent scholars.

Edward S. Greenberg is a professor of political science and the director of the Political and Economic Change Program in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  He is author or coauthor of several books, including The Struggle for Democracy, The American Political System, and Workplace Democracy.  Greenberg has been the recipient of three major grants from the National Science Foundation and two from the National Institutes of Health, and is currently engaged in a study, funded by NIH, that examines the effect of corporate restructuring on employees, including their mental and physical health and their social and political outlooks.

Ben Page is the Scott Fulcher Professor of Decision Making in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University.  He is one of the nation’s leading students of American public opinion, and his landmark book, The Rational Public, won the Converse Award from the American Political Science Association in recognition of its singular contributions to the discipline.  His new book, The Foreign Policy Disconnect, uses longitudinal survey data to show that the American People and their leaders are not always on the same page.