Ken: Hello, I'm Kenneth Janda. I teach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Jeff: Hi, I'm Jeffrey Berry, and I'm at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Jerry: And I'm Jerry Goldman, also at Northwestern University, and the third author of The Challenge of Democracy. Our book does more than just describe American government and politics. It analyzes politics according to three underlying themes. Running throughout our book are two primary themes built about two sets of conflicts: One theme analyzes conflicts among the core political values of freedom, order, and equality. The other theme deals with disagreements between two models of democracy: the majoritarian versus the pluralist model.

Jeff: Jeffrey Berry again: In addition to its two primary themes, our book has a secondary theme of "globalization." It shows how the increasing interdependence of nations in the 21st century affects the practice of American government and politics. Although we all contributed to the book's themes and to all of its chapters, each author took primary responsibilities for different chapters. We are pleased to share with you, as one of the book's readers, just how we approached our task of writing its twenty chapters.

Ken: Back to me, Kenneth Janda: Each author will describe in brief statements lasting not more than three minutes, our major objectives in writing each of our chapters. We hope that by listening to our brief overviews of each chapter, you will know what to look for before you read--or to reflect afterward on what you read earlier. So here is The Challenge of Democracy--in our own words.