Winner of the W J M Mackenzie Prize
`No review can fully capture the breadth and accessibility of S. E.
Finer's posthumous magnum opus ... its clarity and readability must
be emphasized ... Finer constantly reminds us of exceptions that
explain the richness and diversity of polities.'
John R. Cramsie, History
`The range and sweep of these volumes are extraordinary, as is the
verve and clarity of the writing. Finer's intellectual authority is
maintained through the long but never wearisome journey from
Sumerian city states to modern times.'
Times Educational Supplement
`This is political science on the grandest scale: three volumes
that provide a history of successive forms of government throughout
the world from the earliest times to the present day ... Finer
presents material on political systems that most political
scientists will be completely unfamiliar with, and gives fresh
insights into systems that they might have thought they knew ...
What makes it a great book, and one that deserves to be read by all
students of
government, is Finer's remarkable ability to classify and compare
across the entire universe of known systems of government. It is
not simply the scholarship and erudition that is breathtaking, but
also
the confident, clear and imaginative use of comparative tools to
describe the significance of the systems of government.'
Edward Page, Public Policy
`Its encyclopedic summary of governments is a primer for students
interested in a brief, literate introduction to governance in
historical regimes. Its bibliographies provide a guide to studies
of governance in each regime. For these reasons, large university
research libraries may want to include it in their
collections.'
Richard A. Brisbin, Jr., Perspectives on Political Science, Summer
1999, Vol.28 No.3
`The depth and reach of Finer's scholarship thus has produced a
work so rich as to defy comprehensive ordering through any single
comparative theoretical framework ... No member of the coming
generation of comparativist political scientists and historians
will be able to ignore Finer's great accomplishment. It is this
which will come to be the greatest tribute to Finer's remarkable
work, and no doubt one which he himself would have most
strongly
appreciated.'
John Power, University of Melbourne, Australian Journal of
Political Science, Vol 34, no 1
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