THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IN GLOBAL POLITICS, THE ESSENTIALS introduces new co-author Debra Schildkraut to this stellar author team. This best-selling American government text is highly acclaimed for the non-ideological framework it uses to explore three themes: freedom, order, and equality as political values; the majoritarianism versus pluralism debate; and globalization�s effect on American politics. Using an easy to follow approach, with chapters and subheadings numbered and organized by learning outcomes, and a new end of chapter �Assessing Your Understanding� section where students can can test their knowledge, the ninth edition provides a solution for teaching and assessing course learning outcomes. Extensively updated, this condensed edition includes new examples, figures, data, and current discussions. The authors include balanced coverage of Obama�s historical presidency and coverage and analysis of the 2012 presidential primary campaign and election. This ninth edition of THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY, THE ESSENTIALS is an abridged version of the twelfth edition of THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY. See �Features� for details. �Strengths: 1. Conceptual framework. 2. COMPLETE coverage. 3. Unbiased, even-handed approach. Clarity of writing. Consistent, continual theme development throughout the text.� �The most important strength of this book for me is that my students have ranked it higher than any other major American Government text. -The book is not biased one way or another. -It covers all the main subjects in a readable manner and has excellent online resources. -The authors continuously work on improving the text.� �This book is a very comprehensive, yet readable, text on American Government. It is balanced analytically and has extensive online resources. It has been the number one choice among hundreds of my students who have compared it to other major texts.� Kenneth Janda is the Payson S. Wild Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northwestern University. He has published extensively in comparative party politics, research methodology and early use of computer technology in political science, for which he received awards from EDUCOM and support from Apple Computer. His American Political Science Association awards include the Samuel Eldersveld Lifetime Achievement Award (2000) and the Frank J. Goodnow Award for distinguished service to the profession and the association (2009). Dr. Janda and fellow author Dr. Jerry Goldman shared APSA technology awards in 1992 for the IDEAlog computer program and in 2005 for the IDEAlog website. His most recent book is THE EMPEROR AND THE PEASANT: TWO MEN AT THE START OF THE GREAT WAR AND THE END OF THE HABSBURG EMPIRE (McFarland, 2018). Jeffrey M. Berry is the John Richard Skuse Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. A recipient of the American Political Science Association's Samuel Eldersveld Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), Dr. Berry has also received APSA "best book" awards for THE REBIRTH OF URBAN DEMOCRACY (1994), A VOICE FOR NONPROFITS (2004) and LOBBYING AND POLITICAL CHANGE (2009) as well as an award from the Policy Studies Organization for THE NEW LIBERALISM (1999). His most recent book is THE OUTRAGE INDUSTRY: POLITICAL OPINION MEDIA AND THE NEW INCIVILITY (with Sarah Sobieraj). An undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, he received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Jerry Goldman is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the 2010 recipient of the first American Political Science Association/CQ Press Award for Teaching Innovation in Political Science and has received many other awards, including the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for increasing the public's understanding of the law, the EDUCOM Medal and the Roman & Littlefield Prize for Teaching Innovation. In 2012, Dr. Goldman made the Fastcase 50: "the 50 most interesting, provocative and courageous leaders in the world of law, scholarship and legal technology." Through the Oyez multimedia Supreme Court archive project at oyez.org, he has brought the U.S. Supreme Court closer to everyone. An undergraduate at Brooklyn College, he received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Deborah J. Schildkraut is professor of political science at Tufts University. She is the author of Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration (2011), Press "One" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity (2005), and several other research articles. Her research focuses on the implications of the changing ethnic composition of the United States on public opinion in a variety of domains. Professor Schildkraut has received awards from the American Political Science Association for the best book published in the field of political psychology (2012) and for the best paper presented in the field of elections, public opinion, and voting behavior (2009). Sh