Highlights the state government course at West Virginia University that leads students in a comparative study of state governments. Uses a natural progression of course topics from basic state-level characteristics, to political behavior, to political institutions, to policy in order to facilitate understanding of interstate political variation.…

What pass for the study of international relations is often more an examination of foreign affairs, transnational interaction from ethnocentric perspectives. Many analysts accept the assumptions and values of their own political culture, then superimpose them on other nations. If another state does not act in accordance with those values, its…

Assessment requirements often raise great concerns among departments and faculty: fear of loss of autonomy, distraction from primary departmental goals, and the creation of alien and artificial external standards. This article demonstrates how one political science department directly responded to their own unique circumstances in assessing their…

The evidence on learning communities suggests that student intellectual and psychosocial development is improved by participation. Faculty members become rejuvenated as learners once again through rediscovering the boundaries and intersection of their discipline with others. Active learning, collaborative learning, strategies to improve critical…

The assessment literature frequently ignores the quandary of the department resistant to assessment in its discussion of implementing departmental plans and instead focuses on idealized implementation processes. The approach articulated in this article builds on the assessment literature, generating the hypothesis that a grassroots approach to…

Arranged alphabetically for quick and easy access, this book is a one-stop guide to the U.S. presidency from its beginnings at the Constitutional Convention through its evolution to the modern presidency. Included in the book is information on all the presidents and vice presidents of the United States as well as selected First Ladies, powers of…

This book developed from a series of lectures under the auspices of Oxford University Press and the New York Public Library in 1992. Neither an academic nor an U.S. citizen, the writer examines the clouded issues of "political correctness"; "multiculturalism"; and the politicization of the arts. The book is divided into the following sections: (1)…

This book provides a reflective analysis of the effort since 1991 of a group of Polish and U.S. educators to develop civic education programs for schools and teachers in Poland. The book contains 13 chapters and three appendices. Chapters include: (1) "Principles of Democracy for the Education of Citizens in Former Communist Countries of…

This bibliography cites over 150 publications on citizenship theory. Sources, arranged alphabetically by author, include books, journal articles, essays, reports, conference papers, and periodicals from 1916--October 1996. (CB)

The idea of using newspapers in education is not a new one; in fact, recorded references go back as far as the 1890s. During the first half of the 20th century educators and newspaper people increased the awareness of how current materials could maintain an important place in the school curriculum. Influential publications during this period…

This book grew from a working conference on "Citizenship for the 21st Century." The purpose of the conference was to develop specific recommendations to guide the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) and the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) in their efforts to improve civic education for young adolescents. The conferees reached consensus…

In an exploration of customizing the Major Field Achievement Test in Political Science (MFATPS), developed by the Educational Testing Service, a questionnaire was sent to the heads of political science and joint departments which offer a bachelor's degree in Political Science. A total of 1,017 departments were surveyed in January 1990; 293…

Results of a conference on the relationship of political science research and formal civics education showed that civics and government courses have little effect on developing political orientations, perhaps because of the emphasis on the formal, legal-institutional view of politics. Yet teachers and researchers both demonstrated interest in…

There are many impediments to the development of political science as a true academic discipline in the Arab world. Each nation has its own ideological and political framework, and freedoms are determined within this framework. To operate outside this framework is considered an attack on the legality of the system and a possible threat to national…

Mikhail Gorbachev has drastically altered the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, and in so doing has also brought about a new international political reality for all of Europe. This paper contrasts Gorbachev's "New Thinking" in foreign policy with the Brezhnev Doctrine (an approach associated with former USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev that…