In State Governments: Institutions and Issues, a dialogic approach is used to provoke discussion regarding the major institutions of state governments today (federalism, tribal governments, governors, legislatures, judiciaries, and elections). Public policy issues (sprawl, educational choice, welfare and health care reform, water, taxes, living wages, and lotteries) also are subjected to dialogic treatment. Unlike the function of textbooks that provide general, descriptive coverage, these dialogues focus on the arguments and principles and the reasoning and evidence that bear on the lively practices of our political institutions and public policy debates.