Arkansas Politics and Government

Arkansas Politics and Government PDF Author: Diane D. Blair
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803204892
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Published a decade and a half after the late Diane D. Blair s influential book Arkansas Politics and Government, this freshly revised edition builds on her work, which highlighted both the decades of failure by Arkansas's government to live up to the state s motto of Regnat Populus ( The People Rule ) and the positive trends of democracy. Since the first edition, Arkansas has seen the two-term U.S. presidency of a native son, the retirement of players who defined the state s politics in the modern era, the further realignment of the state s electorate, the passage of the nation s most extreme legislative term limits, the complete overhaul of the state s court system, and the declaration that the state s public education system was unconstitutionally inadequate and inequitable. While maintaining the basic structure of Blair s original work with its focus on important historical patterns and the ways in which the past continues to shape the present, the second edition details the causes and consequences of recent changes in Arkansas and asks whether they are profound and permanent or merely transitory variations in symbol and style. Jay Barth argues that although Arkansas currently expresses a healthier representative democracy than throughout most of its history, its political and governmental entities are still sharply limited as effective instruments of the people.

Arkansas Politics and Government

Arkansas Politics and Government PDF Author: Diane D. Blair
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803204892
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Published a decade and a half after the late Diane D. Blair s influential book Arkansas Politics and Government, this freshly revised edition builds on her work, which highlighted both the decades of failure by Arkansas's government to live up to the state s motto of Regnat Populus ( The People Rule ) and the positive trends of democracy. Since the first edition, Arkansas has seen the two-term U.S. presidency of a native son, the retirement of players who defined the state s politics in the modern era, the further realignment of the state s electorate, the passage of the nation s most extreme legislative term limits, the complete overhaul of the state s court system, and the declaration that the state s public education system was unconstitutionally inadequate and inequitable. While maintaining the basic structure of Blair s original work with its focus on important historical patterns and the ways in which the past continues to shape the present, the second edition details the causes and consequences of recent changes in Arkansas and asks whether they are profound and permanent or merely transitory variations in symbol and style. Jay Barth argues that although Arkansas currently expresses a healthier representative democracy than throughout most of its history, its political and governmental entities are still sharply limited as effective instruments of the people.

Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government

Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government PDF Author: Kim U. Hoffman
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
ISBN: 1610756827
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
This second edition of the authoritative Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government brings together in one volume some of the best available scholarly research on a wide range of issues of interest to students of Arkansas politics and government. The twenty-one chapters are arranged in three sections covering both historical and contemporary issues—ranging from the state’s socioeconomic and political context to the workings of its policymaking institutions and key policy concerns in the modern political landscape. Topics covered include racial tension and integration, social values, political corruption, public education, obstacles facing the state’s effort to reform welfare, and others. Ideal for use in introductory and advanced undergraduate courses, the book will also appeal to lawmakers, public administrators, journalists, and others interested in how politics and government work in Arkansas.

Arkansas Politics & Government

Arkansas Politics & Government PDF Author: Diane D. Blair
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780803211889
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
In this full-scale study of Arkansas politics and government, Diane D. Blair spots many encouraging trends: an upsurge in voter registration and participation, the growth of partisan competition, the increasing influence of women and blacks in state and local government, and the state's provision of more, and more varied, public services. It was not always so. Blair asserts that, in spite of the state's proud motto of Regnat Populus (The People Rule), an unresponsive and sometimes self-serving elite ruled over an apathetic and often oppressed populace for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She explains the causes and consequences of changes in Arkansas and asks whether they are profound and permanent ones or merely transitory changes in symbol and style. In this forward-looking hand-book for general readers and scholars alike, Blair considers the distinctive fea-tures of Arkansas politics and the organization and functioning of the state's government.

The Education of Ernie Dumas

The Education of Ernie Dumas PDF Author: Ernest Dumas
Publisher: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
ISBN: 9781945624209
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Beginning with the defeat of Governor Francis Cherry by Orval Faubus, the son of a hillbilly socialist, at the end of the Joseph McCarthy era, Dumas traces the development of a modern political cast that eventually produced Arkansas's first president of the United States--also exploring what brought about the second-ever impeachment of an American president. Journalist Ernest Dumas has written about politics for more than sixty years, since 1954, the year that the stolid Cherry fell to Faubus. The book is also a political memoir that describes not only Dumas's education in the ways of politicians but also the politicians' own education and miseducation in how to win voters and then how to get things done. Through the eyes of a journalist, this book collects the mostly untold stories, often deeply personal, that reveal the inner struggles and sometimes the tribulations of the state's leaders--Cherry, Faubus, Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, John McClellan, J. William Fulbright, Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker, and others.

Government in Arkansas

Government in Arkansas PDF Author: Douglas Reed
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780976631231
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Overview of state and local government in Arkansas

Government in Arkansas

Government in Arkansas PDF Author: Peg Anderson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arkansas
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description


Government and Politics in Arkansas

Government and Politics in Arkansas PDF Author: Dava James
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780792005483
Category : Alabama
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Arkansas in Modern America Since 1930

Arkansas in Modern America Since 1930 PDF Author: Ben F. Johnson
Publisher: Histories of Arkansas
ISBN: 1682261026
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
"Arkansas in Modern America since 1930 represents a significant rewriting of and elaboration on the earlier Arkansas in Modern America, published in 2000. This book offers an overview of the factors that moved Arkansas from a primarily rural society to one more in step with the modern economy and perspectives of the nation as a whole. The narrative covers the roles of Bill Clinton, Daisy Bates, Sam Walton, Don Tyson, and other influential figures in the state's history, placing them in the context of women's movements, music and literature, religious influences, environmental trends, and other important cultural phenomena"--

Inside the Arkansas Legislature

Inside the Arkansas Legislature PDF Author: Bill “Scoop” Lancaster
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503574008
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
From October 15, 1978, until January 20, 2004, I worked for the Arkansas General Assembly, a.k.a. the Arkansas legislature. That’s more than a quarter century on the public payroll. The legislature is made up of a hundred representatives in the House and thirty-five senators in the Senate. A big part of my job as Senate chief of staff was public relations—daily attempts to put a positive spin on the men and women who held these very public positions. My duties included speech writing, supervising a large staff, traveling the country, and even driving legislators home after they had stayed too long at local watering holes and honky-tonks. I even had to tell one preacher/legislator not to be hanging out with well-known prostitutes, and that certainly was not a pleasant assignment—for me, I mean, not the preacher. This book is a look-back at those twenty-five-plus years. Some experiences were uproariously funny, while others were devastatingly sad and distressing. I became the Arkansas Senate’s first chief of staff in 1985 and stayed in this post about twenty years. My previous six years were spent in the House, where I held two positions. These pages will reflect some of what I went through in my work and will present stories about the men and women who sat in those big leather chairs in the marbled chambers. Some of them wielded enormous power, and some went away to prison for abusing that power. And the issue of term limits and how their enactment in the mid-’90s changed Arkansas politics will also be a topic of discussion. I had to stand my ground when things got heated, and I always remained truthful even when the various factions pulled and tugged at me. I worked with some enormously talented individuals, including President Bill Clinton. He dropped by the office to tell us good-bye as he left his home state to take over a much bigger job in Washington, DC. It was a day to remember, like so many others there in Arkansas’s most imposing, century-old building. The enactment of term limits dramatically changed Arkansas history and stripped the legislature of much of its power and influence. Before terms were scaled back by angry voters, legislators in Arkansas served decades and controlled the government purse strings. There was little doubt that powerful legislators ruled the roost, and everyone—governors, employees, and lobbyists—had to kowtow to their every need or else pay a huge price. The Democratic Party stayed in power for a very long time until term limits sent veteran legislators packing and set the stage for a Republican Party takeover of the legislature and the state’s constitutional offices. I witnessed the old system up close and personally and was proud and honored to be an integral part of it, and I stayed long enough to see how the new term-limited neophytes took to their publically financed playground. One of the veteran senators became governor—his name, Mike Beebe. He served twenty years in the Senate, and he was the person responsible for my taking the chief of staff job. He later served two four-year terms as governor, and over the years, he encouraged me to put this book together because he said, no one will remember how the Arkansas legislature worked or even existed prior to term limits unless some of the stories and some of the colorful history are preserved by an insider who actually worked at the place where power lived for so long. Some days at my plush office were a breeze, but others made me long for my job back at the newspaper office. Now retired, I look back on my career with great satisfaction, and I’m glad that for a while, at least, I was, what one of my lobbyist pals called, “the straw that stirred the drink.”

Government and Politics in Arkansas

Government and Politics in Arkansas PDF Author: Dava P. James
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780792005483
Category : Alabama
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description