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This paper offers detailed instructions for using role-playing techniques to teach introductory American Government courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the U.S. federal system, each state is a rival of and an ally to other states. The equilibrium established among the states is subject to disruption as the result of competition and cooperation. In pursuit of its self-interest, a state will compete and cooperate with other states. This paper examines both behaviors, using an original data set including interstate compacts, joint legal actions, economic development competition, and interstate lawsuits. The research finds that the interstate equilibrium established during the 1990s tended to be more cooperative than competitive. Further, the states themselves vary in terms of how cooperative or competitive they are. Finally, states with higher levels of government capability interact more with other states than those with less capable governments do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How national governments interface with the IT industry can have an important influence upon the delivery of government IT projects, which in most advanced industrial countries will account for at least 1 per cent of GDP. Looking across seven countries (the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands and Japan) we characterize the power of the IT industry in terms of three variables: patterns of contractual relations, the largest firms? market and technical dominance, and the extent to which government retains IT expertise or ?intelligent customer? capabilities. We assess the performance of government IT in terms of three factors: the extent of catastrophic project failures or cancellations, indications of the price competitiveness of government IT contracts, and the relative modernization of government IT compared with the private sector nationally. Using a ?fuzzy-set social science? approach we argue that an overall index of corporate power viz a viz central governments shows a clear negative association with government IT performance. Where governments are weakly placed in relation to powerful IT corporations, long-run performance outcomes are less satisfactory. Our cases also illuminate the different ways in which governments can ensure and maintain more balanced relationships with the IT industry, which in turn will foster better long-run results in the design and operations of government IT systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content analysis of 6,480 front page stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post that deal with the federal government in 1981, 1993, and 2001 reveals a clear focus on the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch. Capitol Hill is treated more negatively than the White House during these three years. The content analysis also reveals some evidence of partisan disparities in Congressional coverage, particularly for the New York Times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historiography on the relation between slavery and American political development has shifted markedly in the last ten years to show how much the federal government was implicated in the continued existence of slavery during the 1789-1861 period (Fehrenbacher 2001). But we still lack any quantification of that relationship. In this exploratory study, I attempt to rectify that shortcoming by showing how much the federal government spent on such slavery-related items as interdicting illegal slave trading, subsidizing African colonization, and enforcing fugitive-slave law. The many financial connections between the federal government and slavery provide a more concrete picture of the way the two institutions were entangled together. They also suggest that slavery had a positive impact on the development of the early American state. This finding ?amends? studies that argue it had a negative impact (Einhorn 2000) as well as studies that argue the early American state was ?weak? (Benzel 1990). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]