The Seventh Edition of this best-selling text continues to provide the comprehensive and current coverage of institutions, political behavior, and policy-making at the state and local level. The strong policy orientation of the text, as well as its unifying theme of the increased capacity and responsibility of state and local governments, has established this text as the standard for this course. The authors' thorough examination of state and local governments includes a historical perspective that explains both the development of the existing structures as well as their function in the current political scene.