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Student & Faculty Accomplishments
Books by Our Faculty
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Dr. David Ryden, Is
the Good Book Good Enough? Evangelical Perspectives on Public Policy (Lexington
Books, 2010)
Is The Good Book Good Enough? remedies
the neglect of the evangelical Christians, which makes up as
much as a third of the American public. It offers a carefully
nuanced and comprehensive portrait of evangelical attitudes
on a wide range of policies and their theological underpinnings.
Each essay applies an evangelical lens to a contemporary issue
- environmentalism, immigration, family and same-sex marriage,
race relations, global human rights, foreign policy and national
security, social welfare and poverty, and economic policy.
The result thoroughly enriches our understanding of evangelicalism
as a prism through which many view a wide range of policy debates. |
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Dr.
Virginia Beard, Democratic Political Orientations
in Emerging African Democracies (VDM Verlag Publishers,
2008)
Are Islam and Christianity driving forces in
democratic orientations among Africans? Does gender affect
the democratic
positions
of Africans? In order to add to the growing conversation on
the compatibility (or not) of religion with stable democracy,
this study asks if adherence to Christianity and Islam, within
the context of other factors, helps to explain African democratic
values, attitudes and behaviors.
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Dr.
David Ryden and Dr.
Jeffrey Polet, Sanctioning Religion? Politics,
Law, and Faith-Based Public Services (Lynne Rienner
Publishers, 2005)
Does federal funding of a church's welfare-to-work program
constitute government endorsement of a particular religion? Do religious
organizations that accept public funds lose the legal autonomy needed
to preserve their religious identity and mission? Wading into the constitutional
battle over whether government can and should enlist the help of religious
organizations in delivering social services, Sanctioning Religion? investigates
the potential - as well as the perils - of mixing religion and politics
in the United States.
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Dr.
Annie Dandavati, Engendering
Democracy in Chile (Peter Lang Publications, 2004)
This book documents the rise of a women's movement in
Chile in response to the establishment of a military regime. It focuses
on the growth of the women's movement and its institutionalization
under the new democratic government and concludes with its achievements
while highlighting the challenges faced by women as they work for political
and economic change in Chile.
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Dr.
David Ryden, Of
Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush's Faith-Based
Initiatives (Georgetown University Press, 2004)
Drawing on dozens of interviews with key figures in Washington, the authors tell
a compelling story, revealing the evolution of the Bush faith-based strategy
from his campaign for the presidency through congressional votes to the present.
They show how political rhetoric, infighting, and poor communication shipwrecked
Bush's efforts to fundamentally alter the way government might conduct social
services. The authors demonstrate the lessons learned, and propose a more fruitful,
effective way to go about such initiatives in the future.
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Dr.
David Ryden The U.S. Supreme Court and the
Electoral Process (Georgetown University Press, 2002)
The U.S. Supreme Court, far from being above
the political fray, has consistently made decisions that
affect the electorate in profound ways—Bush v. Gore
being but one example. This book makes it abundantly clear
however that before, during, and after the judicial decision
that made George W. Bush the President of the United States,
everything was, is, and will likely be politics—including
the decisions handed down by the highest court in the land.
This revised and updated edition takes into account not only
the recent judicial decision on the Presidency, but a myriad
of others as well in which the U.S. Supreme Court has considered
the constitutionality of a wide range of issues involving
voting and elections, representation, and political participation.
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Dr.
Jack Holmes, Dr.
David Ryden and Dr.
James Zoetewey, American Government: Essentials
and Perspectives (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 1997)
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT delivers a unique "perspectives" format
within a traditional topic sequence. This short American Government
paperback examines all the traditional topics in a non-traditional
way, summarizing each topic with four differing viewpoints: liberal,
conservative, populist, and libertarian. The result is a text that
effectively explains inter-party differences and political complexities,
avoiding the artificial liberal-conservative dichotomy presented
in other texts.
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Dr.
Annie Dandavati, The Women's Movement and
the Transition to Democracy in Chile (Peter Lang Publications,
1996)
This book seeks to understand the causes for
the rise of an independent women's movement in authoritarian
Chile. It describes the mobilization of women against the Pinochet
government and highlights women's interaction with traditional
actors such as political parties during the democratic transition.
It analyzes the success of the movement in carving a space
for itself in the state, political parties and civil society.
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Dr.
David Ryden, Representation in Crisis: The
Constitution, Interest Groups, and Political Parties (SUNY
Press, 1996)
Confronting a fundamentally important but often
neglected reality in American politics, this book shows the powerful
influence of the courts in determining the shape and operation
of our politics. The author exhaustively details how the Supreme
Court has impoverished the constitutional standing of political
parties in areas of redistricting, campaign finance, ballot access,
patronage, and party primaries, opting instead for superficially
appealing notions of group-based representation. This compelling
indictment of the Supreme Court's constitutional theory of representation
offers a much-need prescription for how the Court might better
perform its role as ultimate guardian of representative government. |
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