San Antonio College Library

Can the shortcomings of representative democracy - failing political parties, increasing distrust of government - be addressed within the current system, or is it time to explore a new political model? In this program, five top thinkers in political sociology discuss issues in modern democracy. Fareed Zakaria asserts that the West has been unable to impose short-term pain for long-term gain; John Keane points to political innovation in South Africa...

This groundbreaking book on White House domestic policymaking is the first to draw upon both the experiences of former presidential advisers and the expertise of leading presidency scholars to explain how policies reflect campaign promises, emerge and evolve, and are sold to the American people. Covering six administrations from Richard Nixon through George W. Bush, with ample references to Barack Obama, it interweaves those insider and outsider perspectives...

Our obsession with slashing the deficit is getting in the way of real work that needs to be done to preserve both our economy and our democracy. It's all about jobs, says Paul Krugman, who joins Bill Moyers in this edition of Moyers & Company. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist explains why our top priority should be getting America back to work - if only Congress and the president would stop throwing distractions in the...

Twenty-two years after George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law questions remain on whether the law prevents hiring discrimination of disabled workers. NewsHour's Judy Woodruff talks to U.S. Business Leadership Network's Jill Houghton and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) about efforts to employ more disabled people.

The fight against voter fraud is a solution in search of a problem - these days, documented instances of voter fraud are virtually nonexistent. Nonetheless, since the 2010 midterm elections, ten states have passed laws requiring government-issued photo IDs to vote, identification that for many is too expensive or otherwise difficult to obtain. In this edition of Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers talks to Keesha Gaskins and Michael Waldman of the Brennan...

Four debates have come and gone, and in the aftermath of the pomp, points, and politics, what have we learned? And how has democracy been served? In this edition of Moyers & Company, two of the country's most astute political media observers-Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Marty Kaplan-join Bill to weigh in on the rhetoric and realities of two campaigns now in the home stretch and looking to make their cases by any means affordable. Jamieson is director...

"Ask most Americans what they think of politics and you'll likely get an earful. With suspicion and distrust of public servants running high, many citizens seem dispirited by the very process that has made the United States a showcase for democracy." "Now ask Tom Volgy. This former mayor of a major western city, who is also a political scientist, contends that most elected officials are the very opposite of what the public thinks: honest, hardworking...

London. New York. Oklahoma City. Each was the site of a horrific and violent attack on the public, as were Madrid, Oslo, and many other urban areas. In the wake of every such tragedy has come a dramatic increase in security: not only more closed-circuit cameras, biometric scanning, and specially designed architecture, but also new laws that allow intense surveillance of individuals, organizations, and their activities. Clearly, the public needs protecting-but...