Introduction /Anthony King --In search of a new public philosophy / Samuel H. Beer -- Change and continuity in the modern Presidency / Fred I. Greenstein -- Issue networks and the executive establishment / Hugh Heclo -- The semi-sovereign Congress / Samuel C. Patterson -- The Supreme Court : from Warren to Burger / Martin Shapiro -- The political parties : reform and decline / Austin Rannery -- Changing patterns of electoral competition / Jeane J. Kirkpatrick -- The puzzle of political participation in America / Richard A. Brody -- The old states in a new system / Leon D. Epstein -- The American polity in the late 1970s : building coalitions in the sand / Anthony King.