With its star-powered author team, led by the newest co-author Hahrie Han, and innovative Five Principles of Politics Framework, American Government: Power and Purpose prepares students to analyze contemporary politics in the book and in the real world. The book’s dynamic digital tools, including the Norton Illumine Ebook and InQuizitive, help students apply the book’s framework to American politics.

Theodore J. Lowi

was the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University. He was elected president of the American Political Science Association in 1990 and was cited as the political scientist who made the most significant contribution to the field during the decade of the 1970s.

Benjamin Ginsberg

is the David Bernstein Professor of Political Science, Director of the Washington Center for the Study of American Government, and Chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the Hopkins faculty in 1992, Ginsberg was Professor of Government at Cornell University. Ginsberg’s published research focuses on political development, presidential politics, participation, and money in politics.  

Kenneth A. Shepsle

is the George D. Markham Professor of Government and founding member of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1990, and he is the recipient of fellowships by the Hoover Institution, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Shepsle’s research focuses on formal political theory, congressional politics, public policy, and political economy.   

Stephen Ansolabehere

is Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has been awarded fellowships by the Carnegie Corporation Fellowship and the Hoover Institution. He served as a co-director of the CalTech/MIT Voting Project, established in the wake of the 2000 presidential election to evaluate the current state of the reliability and uniformity of U.S. voting systems and propose guidelines and requirements for reliable voting and performance. Ansolabehere’s research focuses on public opinion, elections, mass media, and representation.

Hahrie Han

is the Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University. She specializes in the study of organizing, movements, civic engagement, and democracy.

Full Eighteenth Edition

A comprehensive overview of American government, including three policy chapters, available as both a Norton Illumine Ebook and paperback. 

Core Eighteenth Edition

A comprehensive overview of American government, without policy coverage, available as a Norton Illumine Ebook.