The text is organized around significant contemporary developments in the 1980s and 1990s that have effected or are influencing the working of government, political movements and political ideas and the electoral process in the USA. David Mervin examines the limits on and use of presidential power. He argues that different presidents approach the responsibilities of their office with different strategies and leadersahip styles derived from their personal characteristics, their view of the world and their previous experience. Peter Falconer looks at the way Congress carries out the different approaches by which committees discharge their responsibilities in this area and the shift that has taken place in recent years from oversight to micro-management and its implications for legislative executive relations. Tim Hames focuses on the process of creating the US budget, why very high deficits have become a fact of life and what the political repercussions of this have been.