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INTRODUCTION TO

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

THE CENTURY

POLITICAL SCIENCE SERIES

EDITED BY

FREDERIC A. OGG,

University of Wisconsin.

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. By Frederic A. Ogg, University of Wisconsin, and P. Orman Ray, Northwestern University.

AMERICAN PARTIES AND ELECTIONS. By Edward M. Sait, University of California.

STATE GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. By Walter F. Dodd, Chicago, Illinois.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. By Thomas H. Reed, University of California.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF THE UNITED STATES. By Edward S. Corwin, Princeton University.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By
Andrew C. McLaughlin, University of Chicago.
THE CONDUCT OF AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS. By
John M. Mathews, University of Illinois.

OUTLINES OF WORLD POLITICS. By Herbert Adams Gibbons, Princeton, New Jersey.

EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY, 1914-1921. By Charles Seymour, Yale University.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION. By Pitman B. Potter, University of Wisconsin.

AMERICAN INTERESTS AND POLICIES IN THE FAR EAST.
By Stanley K. Hornbeck, Washington, D. C.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES. By Graham
H. Stuart, University of Wisconsin.

RECENT AND CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY. By
Francis W. Coker, Ohio State University.

ELEMENTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. By Charles G. Fenwick, Bryn Mawr College.

Other volumes to be arranged.

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Copyright, 1922, by
THE CENTURY CO.

Printed in U. S. A.

T

1

PREFACE

This book is intended to supply, within reasonable compass, an account of the national, state, and local governments of the United States. The needs of the serious-minded general reader have not been ignored. But the person for whom the volume is primarily designed is the college student who finds himself enrolled in a general course in American government and politics in perhaps his sophomore year. It is with him in mind that three features, in particular, have been incorporated. The first is the innovation comprised in Part I. The college student is sufficiently mature to be brought into profitable contact with the more important elements, principles, and problems of political science in generalmatters which relatively few ever study in separate courses. Experience shows that such contact stretches the mind and widens. the horizon, to the student's great advantage when he comes to contemplate the American, or any other particular, governmental system. Definitions are established, concepts are worked out, background and perspective are gained, which result in both a saving of time and an enrichment of knowledge and interpretation. Nevertheless, the contents of this volume are so arranged that, at the instructor's discretion, Part I can be omitted altogether, or used only for occasional reference.

The second feature that has been deliberately stressed is crit icism of existing political institutions and practices. If defects and failures seem sometimes to have been dwelt upon unduly, it has been only with a view to developing in the student an inquiring, discriminating, critical attitude, and directing his thought along forward-looking and constructive lines. A third feature, closely related, is the attempt to emphasize principles, rather than structural and procedural details. The student of American government must become master of a large body of facts. But he ought not to stop there. Facts readily slip from the mind. Besides, they are subject to ceaseless change. Principles, points of view, tendencies, influences and counter-influences, the reaction of human nature to political tasks and situations-these are the things with

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