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Audio chapters are available below. You can listen directly through the embedded audio players. Links are available if you prefer to stream from Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts instead. The other platforms include helpful time stamps and show notes.
Trailer Episode
Welcome! The narrators introduce the project and themselves. We have created an audiobook production of American Government 3e, an OpenStax textbook. This textbook provides an introduction to US government and civics, and is used widely as in college-level Political Science courses.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.Chapter 1: American Government and Civic Engagement
What does government do to serve the people? What different forms of government exist? How do they differ? How can citizens best engage with and participate in the crucial process of governing the nation? This chapter seeks to answer these questions.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 2: The Constitution and Its Origins
What does government do to serve the people? What different forms of government exist? How do they differ? How can citizens best engage with and participate in the crucial process of governing the nation? This chapter seeks to answer these questions.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 3: American Federalism
What specific powers and responsibilities are granted to the federal and state governments? How does our process of government keep these separate governing entities in balance? To answer these questions and more, this chapter traces the origins, evolution, and functioning of the American system of federalism, as well as its advantages and disadvantages for citizens.Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The actions of ordinary citizens, lawyers, and politicians have been at the core of a vigilant effort to protect constitutional liberties. But what are those freedoms? And how should we balance them against the interests of society and other individuals? These are the key questions we will tackle in this chapter.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 5: Civil Rights
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The actions of ordinary citizens, lawyers, and politicians have been at the core of a vigilant effort to protect constitutional liberties. But what are those freedoms? And how should we balance them against the interests of society and other individuals? These are the key questions we will tackle in this chapter.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 6: The Politics of Public Opinion
As many a disappointed candidate knows, public opinion matters. The way opinions are formed and the way we measure public opinion also matter. But how much, and why? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in this chapter.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 7: Voting and Elections
What brings voters to the polls, and how do they make their voting decisions? Those are just two of the questions about voting and elections this chapter will explore.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 8: The Media
What does it mean to have a free news media? What regulations limit what media can do? How do the media contribute to informing citizens and monitoring politicians and the government, and how do we measure their impact? This chapter explores these and other questions about the role of the media in the United States.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 9: Political Parties
This chapter will explore why the party system may be the most important component of any true democracy. What are political parties? Why do they form, and why has the United States typically had only two? Why have political parties become so highly structured? Finally, why does it seem that parties today are more polarized than they have been in the past?
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 10: Interest Groups and Lobbying
In this chapter, we answer several key questions about interest groups. What are they, and why and how do they form? How do they provide avenues for political participation? Why are some groups advantaged by the lobbying of government representatives, while others are disadvantaged? Finally, how do interest groups try to achieve their objectives, and how are they regulated?
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 11: Congress
How exactly does Capitol Hill operate? What are the different structures and powers of the House of Representatives and the Senate? How are members of Congress elected? How do they reach their decisions about legislation, budgets, and military action? This chapter addresses these aspects and more as it explores “the first branch” of government.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 12: The Presidency
What are the powers, opportunities, and limitations of the presidency? How does the chief executive lead in our contemporary political system? What guides the chief executive’s actions, including unilateral actions? If it is most effective to work with others to get things done, how does the president do so? What can get in the way of this goal? This chapter answers these and other questions about the nation’s most visible leader.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 13: The Courts
How do the courts make decisions, and how do they exercise their power to protect individual rights? How are the courts structured, and what distinguishes the Supreme Court from all others? This chapter answers these and other questions in delineating the power of the judiciary in the United States.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 14: State and Local Government
How do state and local governments gain the authority to make these decisions, and how are their actions guided by cultural and other differences between the states? What tensions exist between national and state governments on policy matters, and what unique powers do mayors and governors enjoy? By answering these and other questions, this chapter explores the role of state and local governments in our lives.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy
What roles do professional government employees carry out? Who are they, and how and why do they acquire their jobs? How do they run the programs of government enacted by elected leaders? Who makes the rules of a bureaucracy? This chapter uncovers the answers to these questions and many more.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 16: Domestic Policy
What is public policy? How do different areas of policy differ, and what roles do policy analysts and advocates play? What programs does the national government currently provide? And how do budgetary policy and politics operate? This chapter answers these questions and more.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
What are the main foreign policy goals of the United States? How do the president and Congress interact in the foreign policy realm? In what different ways might foreign policy be pursued? This chapter will delve into these and other issues to present an overview U.S. foreign policy.
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.