Consistently praised for its engaging narrative, Logic hooks students with great storytelling while arming them with a "toolkit" of institutional design concepts-command, veto, agenda control, voting rules, and delegation. Students are exposed to real political science in the introductory course and learn to recognize a rationale for how the American political system was designed and why it works the way it does. More than 100 tables, figures, and maps offer visual context to an array of political data and analysis, while over 200 carefully chosen photographs enhance the book's examples and insights. Bolded key terms, a glossary, annotated reading lists, review questions, and a companion website help students read, think, and study.

Author Biography

Samuel Kernell is professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1977. Previously, he taught at the University of Mississippi and the University of Minnesota. Kernell's research interests focus on the presidency and American political history. His previous books include Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 3rd edition; an edited collection of essays, James Madison: The Theory and Practice of Republican Government; and, with Gary C. Jacobson, The Logic of American Politics, 7th edition and Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, 2nd edition. Gary C. Jacobson is distinguished professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1979. He previously taught at Trinity College, the University of California at Riverside, Yale University, and Stanford University. Jacobson specializes in the study of U.S. elections, parties, interest groups, and Congress. He is the author of Money in Congressional Elections: The Politics of Congressional Elections, Eighth Edition, The Electoral Origins of Dividend Government: Competition in the U.S. House Elections, 1946 - 1988, and A Divider, Not a Uniter: George W. Bush and the American People, Second Edition, and is coauthor with Samuel Kernell of Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, Second Edition. Jacobson is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Thad Kousser is associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and director of the California Constitutional Reform Project at Stanford University's The Bill Lane Center for the American West. He has served as a legislative aide in the California, New Mexico, and United States Senates. He is the author of Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism, which won the APSA Legislative Studies Section's Alan Rosenthal Prize, and the co-editor of The New Political Geography of California, Tenth Edition. He has been awarded the UCSD Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award, and serves as co-editor of the State Politics and Policy Quarterly journal. Lynn Vavreck is associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she has taught since 2001. She previously taught at Dartmouth College and held a research position at Princeton University. Before returning to the academy, Vavreck worked in the White House and on presidential campaigns. Her research focuses mainly on the effects of campaign messaging and specifically on the impact of political advertising. She is the author of The Message Matters: The Economy and Presidential Campaigns and co-author of Campaign Reform: Insights and Evidence and The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Election. Her political commentary can be read in The New York Times and on broadcast outlets like MSNBC, CNN, and NPR. She serves on advisory boards for the American National Election Study and the British Election Study and has twice consulted for venture-funded start-ups interested in improving the measurement of advertising and public attitudes through innovations in technology.