Ideas of Power

Verlan Lewis is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, California. His research focuses on how political institutions and ideas interact over time, and his work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Studies in American Political Development, Presidential Studies Quarterly, The Forum, and The Washington Post.

• 1. The liberal conservative myth and political science; 2. A political theory of American party ideology development; 3. The presidency and party theories of foreign intervention; 4. Unified government and party theories of economic intervention; 5. The Supreme Court and party theories of judicial intervention; 6. Politics, history, and American party ideology development.

'The dominant paradigm of American politics scholarship builds in an assumption that 'liberal' and 'conservative' are fixed in meaning - and that one major political party is always on the 'left' while the other is on the 'right'. But what if that's not so? In this outstanding book, Verlan Lewis not only shows us how party ideologies have changed over time, but he also uncovers predictable patterns in those changes and links them to the fundamental political calculations of party actors in and out of power. Ideas of Power is a must-read - it's a book that will reshape the way we understand ideology in the United States and beyond.' Sarah Anzia, Michelle J. Schwartz Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley