Includes bibliographical references.

World Wide Web sites -- Perspectives on the American system. The Federal Constitution / Alexis de Tocqueville ; The disuniting of America: reflections on a multicultural society / Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ; Twenty-first century democracy / Alvin Toffler ; The Gulf War and the Constitution / Michael J. Glennon -- Four political institutions. Presidential leadership: an introduction / George C. Edwards III and Stephen J. Wayne ; The two presidencies /Aaron Wildawsky ; The leadership of Richard Nixon / Francisco Wong ; Can't anybody here play this game? / Edward G. Shirley ; All politics is local / Christopher Matthews ; Pressures on Congress / Congressional Quarterly ; Courts and politics in the United States / Herbert Jacob ; The inmate bazaar / Christopher Swope ; Why Americans hate the media / James Fallows ; Media coverage: help or hindrance in conflict prevention / Nik Gowing -- Civil liberties and civil rights, the perennial issues. Civil liberties in America ; The case of Lani Guinier / Anthony Lewis ; Up from slavery: the myth of Black progress / Stephen Steinberg -- The United States in a new global environment. The new world order / Henry Kissinger ; Multicultural foreign policy / Yossi Shain ; The twenty-first-century global system / Alvin and Heidi Toffler ; An introduction to information warfare / Winn Schwartau ; Embassies at risk / Smith Hempstone -- Appendix. The Declaration of Independence ; The Constitution of the United States of America.