Brimming with data and examples from the tumultuous 2000 election and laced with previews of 2004, the eleventh edition of this classic text offers a complete overview of the presidential election process from the earliest straw polls and fundraisers to final voter turnout and exit interviews. The comprehensive coverage includes campaign strategy, the sequence of electoral events, and the issues, all from the perspective of the various actors in the election process: voters, interest groups, political parties, the media, and the candidates themselves. Nelson Polsby is a master of debunking myths and analyzing trends. In this fortieth birthday edition of Presidential Elections, he continues in the tradition he and Aaron Wildavsky established as co-authors and goes one step further in following contemporary trends in frontloading and the regulation of political finance.

Author Biography

Nelson W. Polsby is the Heller Professor of Political Science and past director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC-Berkeley. He is vice president of the Political Studies Association of the UK, a member of the Academic Advisory Board of AEI, and a former Brookings and Guggenheim Fellow. He is editor of the Annual Review of Political Science. His books include How Congress Evolves (2003); New Federalist Papers (with Alan Brinkley and Kathleen M. Sullivan, 1997); Media and Momentum (editor with Gary R. Orren, 1987); Congress and the Presidency (1986); and Consequences of Party Reform (1983). Aaron Wildavsky was, at the time of his death, Class of 1940 Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at UC-Berkeley, and founding dean of Berkeley's Graduate School of Public Policy.