Governing An Introduction to Political Science

9780130180391

0130180394

PREFACE This book is a lineal descendant of two earlier books. The older ancestor isThe Governing of Men,which was first published in 1958 and revised in 1966, 1971, and 1975. The younger isGoverning: A Brief Introduction to Political Science,which was first published in 1971 and revised in 1975 and 1982.Governingbegan as a shortened and rearranged version ofThe Governing of Men,consisting of thirteen of its twenty-four chapters. This book's content and its structure now differ considerably from those of both of its ancestors, and with good reason. WhenThe Governing of Menwas first published, the last century of the old millennium was only three-fifths done. This eighth edition ofGoverningis being published in the second year of the first century of the new millennium. Forty-two years (1958-2001) is a short step in the long march of human history, and yet since 1958 political events have moved at a dizzying pace and many old truths have been replaced with new understandings, questions, and doubts. In 1958, the most prominent feature of the world's political landscape was the struggle of the two great "superpowers" and their ideologies and allies-the United States and democratic capitalism versus the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and authoritarian communism. In 1958, their struggle was called the "Cold War" because it had not yet exploded into thermonuclear World Wax III, though no one could be confident it never would. In 2001, the USSR no longer exists; it was dissolved and replaced by fifteen independent republics in 1991. When the USSR disappeared, so did the Cold War, and World War III is a far more remote possibility today than it seemed in 1958. Moreover, as we detail in this edition, communist ideology and institutions, which once dominated nearly half the world, now survive in only a few places, notably the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and North Vietnam. Most of the nations in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America have sought, with varying degrees of success, to replace their old systems of authoritarian rule by dictators and juntas with democratic systems based on free elections of accountable rulers. Not the least of these changes has come in South Africa, where in 1992 a multiracial convention drew up a new constitution that ended the longstanding system ofapartheidwith its repression of the black majority by the white minority, and a 1994 election open to all races elected Nelson Mandela, the great leader of the black population, president of the republic. In the domestic politics of the United States, there have been nearly as many drastic political changes since 1958. In the 1960s in Vietnam the country fought, and ultimately lost, its most unpopular war in history. It also fought with much greater popular support and success against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991, and, with its NATO allies, fought against Yugoslavia in Kosovo in 1999. One president, John R Kennedy, was assassinated, and attempts were made on the lives of two others, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. There have been two serious efforts to impeach presidents and remove them from office: In 1974 Richard Nixon resigned rather than face an impeachment trial; and in 1998-1999 Clinton was impeached by the House, and tried and acquitted by the Senate. In the 1994 elections, the Republican party, led by Newt Gingrich, won control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1954; they maintained their majorities in the elections of 1996 and 1998, though Gingrich resigned as Speaker of the House in 1999. Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 became the first Democratic president to be reelected since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, and in 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second. In 1997, Madeleine Albright became the first woman