Through an exclusive focus on public policy advocacy as a practical endeavor, Philip Dalton and John R. Butler depart from approaches to debate education that focus on the rules of simulated, academic debate formats. Beginning with the assumption that readers have already developed a basic capacity to argue, they offer practical guidance for determining the fundamental issues that make up a controversy and what expectations public audiences will have for advocacy based on the issues and th...

Public expression in the United States has become increasingly coarse. Whether it’s stupid, rude, base, or anti-intellectual talk, it surrounds us. Popular television, film, music, art, and even some elements of religion have become as coarse, we argue, as our often-disparaged political dialogue. This book’s contention is that the U.S. semantic environment is governed by tactics, not tact. We craft messages that work—that perform their desired function. We are instrumental, strategic commu...

Through an exclusive focus on public policy advocacy, Dalton and Butler offer practical guidance for determining the fundamental issues that make up a controversy and what expectations public audiences will have for advocacy based on the issues and the burdens of advocates challenging or defending the status quo. Through examples that span a wide range of advocacy situations and subjects of contemporary importance, the authors build a framework for public policy advocacy that is organic to...

What happens when a mandate for justice becomes a blueprint for preserving power?Examining how Long Island's two major counties-Suffolk and Nassau-responded to New York State's mandate to reform and reinvent policing in the wake of George Floyd's murder, Deliberating Police Reform draws on interviews, historical context, and detailed analysis of reform taskforces to reveal how deliberative processes meant to empower communities instead often blunted meanin...

Climate Change in the Northwest: Implications for Our Landscapes, Waters, and Communities is aimed at assessing the state of knowledge about key climate impacts and consequences to various sectors and communities in the northwest United States. It draws on a wealth of peer-reviewed literature, earlier state-level assessment reports conducted for Washington (2009) and Oregon (2010), as well as a risk-framing workshop. As an assessment, it aims to be representative (though not exhau...

A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutionsMost people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. ...

The Paideia Proposal is a system of liberal education intended for all children. It was a response to what Adler characterized as the United States' antidemocratic or undemocratic educational system, a holdover from the 19th century, when the understanding of basic human rights fell short of 20th century expectations.The Paidea Proposal was based upon the following assumptions: 1) All children are educable; 2) Education is never completed in school or higher institutions of learnin...

Make the Right Choice - Enhance Your Ethical Decision Making Skills Today!Ethical issues arise in all walks of life, but none have implications as far-reaching and serious as those related to public management. Most people working in the public sector want to do the "right" thing, but the issues can be highly complex or just not lend themselves to easy answers. Practical Ethics in Public Administration, Third Edition, provides the ...

The official guide to SIMSOC, the dynamic group simulation game whose “potential for stimulating the learning process is staggering” (Teaching Sociology), in which players grapple with the challenge of governing society.In SIMSOC, players confront issues like abuse of power, justice, diversity, trust, and leadership as they negotiate their way through labor-management strife, political turmoil, and natural disasters. Success or failure is dependent upon de...

What should be the role of our institutions of higher education? To promote good moral character? To bring an end to racism, sexism, economic oppression, and other social ills? To foster diversity and democracy and produce responsible citizens? In Save the World On Your Own Time, Stanley Fish argues that, however laudable these goals might be, there is but one proper role for the academe in society: to advance bodies of knowledge and to equip students for doing the same. When teachers offe...

The bible for debaters and their coaches.Nearly every high school and college in America has a debate club and/or a debate team. There are hundreds of competitions at the county and state level, culminating in heated national competitions. Yet, at many high schools and colleges, coaches are drawn from the history or English departments with little or no experience in the highly structured procedures of this popular discipline. And while competitive debate has been ...

Philip Selznick's renowned book Leadership in Administration -- it practically invented the genre of executive leadership studies and is the lively response to the "rationalist" approach to organizations -- has been re-released in ebook formats, adding a new introduction by Robert E. Rosen.Foundational study of how institutions work and how leadership promotes them, often cited in many fields and assigned to classes in a variety of departments -- including sociology and business, p...