Politics: The Basics
Stephen D Tansey
Language: English
Pages: 286
ISBN: 0415841429
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Now in its fifth edition, Politics: The Basics explores the systems, movements and issues at the cutting edge of modern politics. A highly successful introduction to the world of politics, it offers clear and concise coverage of a range of issues and addresses fundamental questions such as:
• Why does politics matter?
• Why obey the state?
• What are the key approaches to power?
• How are political decisions made?
• What are the current issues affecting governments worldwide?
Accessible in style and topical in content, the fifth edition has been fully restructured to reflect core issues, systems and movements that are at the centre of modern politics and international relations. Assuming no prior knowledge in politics, it is ideal reading for anyone approaching the study of politics for the first time.
John Kennedy: A Political Profile
Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine
The American Future: A History
Near and Distant Neighbors: A New History of Soviet Intelligence
The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
‘Political Science in Britain’, European Journal of Political Science, 20 (3–4): 301–322. Himmelweit, H., Humphrey, P. and Jaeger, M. (1985) How Voters Decide, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Hobhouse, L. (1964) Liberalism, New York: Oxford University Press (reprint of 19 edn). Hogwood, B. and Gunn, L. (1984) Policy Analysis for the Real World, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Holland, T. (2005) Persian Fire: The First World Empire, Battle for the West, London: Little, Brown. Holliday,
by a committee of prominent court members, while the chief minister of a foolish or lazy king might easily hold effective power. In the Japanese case, the shogun (or prime minister) became the effective power for centuries, turning it into a hereditary office. The dominance for centuries of this type of political organisation in many parts of the world is a caution against assuming contemporary state forms are inevitable. Although kingdoms of the type described are now rare, they are not extinct
eighteenth-century UK constitution, presidential systems not only divide the powers of government into legislative (law making), executive (law enforcing) and judicial (law interpreting) institutions, but seek to separate these in terms of personnel and balance them against each other. Democratic government is seen in terms of a refusal to concentrate potentially tyrannical power, so that it cannot be used to take away individual rights. Federalism is seen as a further expression of the same
effectively without ‘Great Power’ agreement. Alas, until the 1990s the Cold War meant that virtually all effective action by the UN was stillborn. Even now, with apparently greater international consensus, although humanitarian action in the former Yugoslavia, Liberia and the Congo has been possible, the UN is handicapped by the lack of effective executive apparatus and in 2003 splits in the Security Council once more prevented effective action against Iraq. Long delays in taking humanitarian
institutions, NGOs have increasingly targeted the behaviour of commercial operations. Spar and La Mure (2003) highlight the example of the impact of the Free Burma Coalition, which successfully encouraged a number of companies to change their policies in dealing with Burma. The lesson they drew was that the success of such lobbying depended upon the impact on the bottom line of profitability. The role that NGOs are playing in international affairs raises a key question concerning their impact on
