State and Local Politics: Institutions and Reform - Hardcover

Todd Donovan (Ph.D., University of California, Riverside) is a professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. He teaches state and local politics; American politics, parties, campaigns, and elections; comparative electoral systems; and introductory research methods and statistics. His research interests include direct democracy, election systems and representation, political behavior, subnational politics, and the political economy of local development. He has been published extensively in academic journals; written a number of books on direct democracy, elections, institutions, and reform; and has received numerous grants and awards for his work. He is coauthor (with Ken Hoover) of THE ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC THINKING, also published by Cengage Learning.

Christopher Z. Mooney (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison) is the Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor of State Politics at the University of Illinois, Springfield. From 1999 to 2007, he served as the founding editor of STATE POLITICS AND POLICY QUARTERLY, the official journal of the State Politics and Policy section of the American Political Science Association. Mooney has authored dozens of books and articles related to legislative politics, morality politics, and policy diffusion. In addition, he often serves as a media commentator on state politics topics, including serving as a regular panelist on State Week in Review, a National Public Radio program broadcast statewide in Illinois. In 2010, in recognition of his scholarship and founding of SPPQ, the APSA endowed the annual Christopher Z. Mooney Award for the best PhD dissertation in the field of state politics.

Daniel A. Smith (PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison) is a professor of Political Science at the University of Florida and the former director of UF's Political Campaigning Program. In addition to teaching state and local politics, he offers courses on political parties and interest groups, direct democracy, and the politics of reform. He has published widely on voting rights and election law, campaign finance, direct democracy, political parties, and interests groups. He serves on the board of directors of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation (BISCF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., and is the author of several books and over 50 articles and book chapters on American politics.

"The narrative is lively and engaging offering concrete examples from real life experience. The major themes of the book are laid out in Chapter 1, with a heavy focus on institutions and politics. I think the chapter is extremely well organized, logical, and the writing style both interesting and clear. . . . " --Tom Hogen-Esch, California State University--Northridge

"The writing style is engaging and often witty, making the material accessible to perhaps even the most apathetic undergraduate." --Donald P. Haider-Markel, University of Kansas

"Rather than settling for a lifeless walk through the mechanics of government, the authors have written a theoretically informed, up-to-date treatment of state and local politics. Including references to the latest research on state politics is not only long overdue but it makes the text relevant by demonstrating that the rules of the game matter." --Jeff Worsham, West Virginia University

"Strengths [include] good use of current scholarship in the field; good coverage of not only relevant political institutions but also of policy issues; [and the] maps and tables throughout are essential and are well done." --Robert Breckinridge, Mount Aloysius College