Books in the Chicago Studies in American Politics (CHUP) series

In the modern Congress, one of the highest hurdles for major bills or nominations is gaining the sixty votes necessary to shut off a filibuster in the Senate. But this wasn't always the case. This title shows that filibustering is a game with slippery rules in which legislators who think fast and try hard can triumph over superior numbers.

Drawing on the analysis of counterterrorism in the years after 9/11 - including the issuance of terror alerts and the decision to invade Iraq - this title presents a case that the Bush administration hyped fear, while obscuring civil liberties abuses and concrete issues of preparedness.

Barack Obama's presidential victory naturally led people to believe that the United States might finally be moving into a post-racial era. This title argues that the 2008 election was more polarized by racial attitudes than any other presidential election on record.

With the 2012 presidential election upon us, will voters cast their ballots for the candidates whose platforms and positions best match their own? Or will the race for the next president of the United States come down largely to who runs the most effective campaigning? This book reveals how both factors come into play.

Surveying critical episodes in the development of American political parties, this book shows how they address three fundamental problems of democracy: how to regulate the number of people seeking public office, how to mobilize voters, and how to achieve and maintain the majorities needed to accomplish goals once in office.

Responds to the growing chorus of critics who fear that the politics of running for office undermine judicial independence. The author presents a comprehensive study of the impact of campaigns on public perceptions of fairness, impartiality, and the legitimacy of elected state courts - and his findings are both counterintuitive and controversial.

How did Bill Clinton's clever dexterity help him recover from the Monica Lewinsky scandal? How did Barack Obama draw on his experience as a talented community activist to overcome his inexperience as a national leader? This title provides insights into American politics.

We live in an age of media saturation, where with a few clicks of the remote - or mouse - we can tune in to programming where the facts fit our ideological predispositions. This title demonstrates that the strong effects of media exposure found in past research are simply not applicable in today's more saturated media landscape.

The United States imprisons far more people, total and per capita, than any other country in the world. Among the more than 1.5 million Americans incarcerated, minorities and the poor are disproportionately represented. The author offers evidence that living in a high-imprisonment neighborhood significantly decreases political participation.

Drawing on experiments and survey data, this title shows that Americans who watch partisan programming do become more certain of their beliefs and less willing to weigh the merits of opposing views or to compromise.