This "Election Update" edition of Bessette/Pitney's AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS: DELIBERATION, DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP, is complete with 2010 election information. Like its previous edition, the text has three underlying principles: Citizenship, History and Democracy. Via two unique chapters -- Chapter 4: American Citizenship and Chapter 5: Civic Culture -- authors Joseph Bessette and John Pitney, Jr. examine the way that civic culture shapes the country and take a close look at civic responsibility. "Deliberative democracy" -- the concept that political systems work best when informed citizens and public officials deliberate to identify and promote the common good -- is considered throughout the text.