Exploring Politics: A Concise Introduction

Gaspare M. Genna is Professor and Chair of Political Science and Public Administration, as well as the Director of the North American Studies Program at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). He is a Pastor Scholar, Robert A. Pastor North America Research Initiative, with the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, an Associate Research Fellow for the Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies at the United Nations University, and Senior Research Fellow for the TRC Institute at Portland State University. His research interests include the application of political economy and political psychology approaches to the understanding of issues related to regional integration (structural conditions for regionalization, political decision-making, public opinion on integration, and policy implications). His geographical area of specialization is in Europe and the Americas. He is a coauthor or coeditor of six academic books and has publications in such journals as Geopolitics, International Interactions, Review of International Political Economy, European Union Politics, Journal of European Integration, and The Journal of College Student Retention. In 2013, he won a University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award and is now a UTEP Distinguished Teaching Professor.

Taeko Hiroi is Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas at El Paso and a contributing faculty to the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies, Asian Studies, and Brazilian Studies Programs. Her research areas include political institutions, legislative politics, presidential and legislative coalitions, electoral systems, governance and accountability, democratization, political instability, comparative and international political economy, and health politics and policy. Her recent publications appear in Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, International Political Science Review, Journal of Legislative Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, and Studies in Comparative International Development. She is a coauthor of the book Regional Integration and Democratic Conditionality.