Understanding the Bush Doctrine
Robert Jervis argues that the Bush doctrine presents a highly ambitious conception of U.S. foreign policy. Based on the premise that this is a period of great threat and great opportunity, the doctrine calls for the assertion and expansion of American power in service of hegemony. He concludes that this assertion and expansion is not likely to succeed.

Deciding on War Against Iraq: Institutional Failures
Louis Fisher analyzes the performance of U.S. political institutions in authorizing the war against Iraq in October 2002. He finds that the Bush administration failed to provide correct information to Congress to justify the war and relied on tenuous claims that were discredited on many occasions. He also argues that Congress failed in its institutional duties both by voting on the Iraq resolution without sufficient evidence and by drafting the legislation in such a way that it left the power to initiate war in the hands of the President, exactly what the Framers had tried to prevent.

Judicial Uses of Subterfuge: Affirmative Action Reconsidered
DANIEL SABBAGH contends that it is the visibility of affirmative action decisions that triggers negative side effects as far as its underlying goal of deracializing American society is concerned. He suggests that some of the most important developments in the Supreme Court’s case law can be understood as reflecting a tendency to minimize those negative side effects by dissimulating the policy’s most distinctive features.

Pluralism and Multiculturalism in France: Post-Jacobin Transformations
WILLIAM SAFRAN examines the modifications of France’s traditional Jacobin republicanism in the direction of pluralism. He shows how this development has been reflected in the growth of “polyarchic” patterns as manifested in the competition between national and local governmental authorities, on the one hand, and public and private sectors in economics, education, and the media, on the other.

Direct Democracy and Institutional Realignment in the American States
CAROLINE J. TOLBERT draws a parallel between the Progressive era and the last two decades of the twentieth century to look at the role of direct democracy in American political reform. She argues that ballot issues at the state level may function as an adaptive mechanism, realigning institutions of representative government to new social and economic functions.

Is the Body Politic Dying? A Review Essay
Hugh Heclo reviews three books that seek to explain the decline of voting in the United States. The results of his analysis paint a grim but not hopeless portrayal of modern American citizenship.

Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs about How Government Should Work, John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse
Reviewed by Robert Shapiro

The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century, Charles A. Kupchan
Reviewed by Walter LaFeber

The Opposition Presidency: Leadership and the Constraints of History, David A. Crockett
Reviewed by David R. Mayhew

Deciding to Leave: The Politics of Retirement from the United States Supreme Court, Artemus Ward
Reviewed by Henry J. Abraham

Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders, George W. Breslauer ; Yeltsin's Russia and the West, Andrew Felkay
Reviewed by Mark Kramer

Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America, Miguel Angel Centeno
Reviewed by Jorge I. Domínguez

U.S.-Japan Relations in a Changing World, Steven K. Vogel, ed.
Reviewed by Akira Iriye

Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military, Robert H. Scales, Jr.
Reviewed by William Odom

Democracy and Post-Communism: Political Change in the Post-Communist World, Graeme Gill
Reviewed by Oxana Shevel

When the Stakes Are High: Deterrence and Conflict among Major Powers, Vesna Danilovic
Reviewed by Erik Gartzke

A Faceless Enemy: The Origins of Modern Terrorism, Glenn E. Schweitzer and Carole Dorsch Schweitzer
Reviewed by Audrey Kurth Cronin

Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order, Robert Kagan
Reviewed by Frank Costigliola

Ethnic Identity Groups and U.S. Foreign Policy, Thomas Ambrosio, ed.
Reviewed by Kay Lehman Schlozman

Detained: Immigration Laws and the Expanding I.N.S. Jail Complex, Michael Welch
Reviewed by Athan Theoharis

Democracy's Constitution: Claiming the Privileges of American Citizenship, John Denvir
Reviewed by Verity Smith

Democrats/Republicans and the Politics of Women's Place, Kira Sanbonmatsu
Reviewed by Doris A. Graber

Place and Politics in Modern Italy, John A. Agnew
Reviewed by Randolph Starn

Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics, Jenny B. White
Reviewed by Quinn Mecham

Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency, Peter J. Wallison ; Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism, Peter Schweizer
Reviewed by John J. Pitney, Jr.

Elections and Voters in Britain, David Denver
Reviewed by Justin Fisher

Why Women Protest: Women's Movements in Chile, Lisa Baldez
Reviewed by Elisabeth Jay Friedman

Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System, E. Scott Adler
Reviewed by Jeffery A. Jenkins

The Media and Neo-Populism: A Contemporary Comparative Analysis, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Julianne Stewart and Bruce Horsfield, eds.
Reviewed by Brigitte L. Nacos

Championing Child Care, Sally S. Cohen
Reviewed by Sonya Michel

Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power, Leonard N. Moore
Reviewed by Wilbur C. Rich

Presidents, the Presidency, and the Political Environment, John H. Kessel
Reviewed by Erwin C. Hargrove

Faith in Politics, A. James Reichley ; Religious Liberty in America: Political Safeguards, Louis Fisher
Reviewed by Andrew Greeley

The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values, David M. Anderson and Michael Cornfield, eds.
Reviewed by Bruce Bimber

Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve: The Politics of American Monetary Policy-Making, Irwin L. Morris
Reviewed by Gerald Epstein

The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government, Jon C. Teaford
Reviewed by Thomas Lewis Gais

Reclaiming Public Housing: A Half Century of Struggle in Three Public Neighborhoods, Lawrence J. Vale
Reviewed by Donna Kirchheimer