Samuel Kernell is professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1977. Previously, he taught at the University of Mississippi and the University of Minnesota. Kernell's research interests focus on the presidency and American political history. His previous books include Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 3rd edition; an edited collection of essays, James Madison: The Theory and Practice of Republican Government; and, with Gary C. Jacobson, The Logic of American Politics, 7th edition, and Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections, 2nd edition. Kernell's most recent book, Party Ballots, Reform and the Transformation of American Politics, (2015, with Erik Engstrom), won the APSA's David Greenstone Award for the best book in politics and history. Steven S. Smith is professor of political science and director of the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and George Washington University and has served as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. His research interests include American politics, congressional politics, Russian politics, positive theories of politics, and theories of institutional development. He is author or coauthor of Politics or Principle: Filibustering in the United States (1997), Committees in Congress, 3rd edition (1997), The American Congress (2005), Call to Order: Floor Politics in the House and Senate (1989), Managing Uncertainty in the House of Representatives (1988), and The Politics of Institutional Choice: The Formation of the Russian State Duma (2000).
