Table of Contents

Preface

Part One: Getting Started

1. Foundations of Politics 
2. Contemporary Political Science: Methods and Approaches

Part Two: Ideas

3. Foundations of Political Philosophy
4. Ideology: Ideas for Political Action
5. Political Culture: The Collective Consciousness of a Polity

Part Three: The Evolution of Liberal Democracy

6. Liberal Democracy: Emergence and Dimensions

Part Four: The Institutions of Liberal Democratic States

7. Democratic Governance: Presidential and Parliamentary Variants
8. Governing Territory: Unitary and Federal Systems

Part Five: The Political Process in Liberal Democracies

9. Cleavage Structures and Electoral Systems
10. Parties, Organized Groups, and Direct Democracy

Part Six: Governing

11. Public Policy, Legislation, and the Bureaucracy
12. Justice, Law, and Politics
13. The Rise (and Fall?) of the Welfare State
14. Politics and the International System, Chris Holoman

Appendices

A. The Constitution of the United States

B. Amendments to the Constitution

Index

Promotional Information

A useful overview for students: broad in scope, clearly written, and always to the point. -- Eric Bronner, Rutgers University Politics is extremely thorough and well-researched; it covers the basics in exemplary detail. The inclusion of a discussion of political science as well as of political philosophy is particularly welcome, as it helps ground the discussion of modern institutions and processes in the history of political thought. -- Robert E. Kelly, University of the Pacific

About the Author

Munroe Eagles is Professor of Political Science and Geography at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His primary research interests are in the field of electoral and political geography, and in the politics of advanced industrial democracies. He has published numerous journal articles on these topics and is the author, with R. Kenneth Carty, of Politics is Local: National Politics at the Grassroots (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Reviews

A useful overview for students: broad in scope, clearly written, and always to the point.--Eric Bronner, Rutgers University
Politics is extremely thorough and well-researched; it covers the basics in exemplary detail. The inclusion of a discussion of political science as well as of political philosophy is particularly welcome, as it helps ground the discussion of modern institutions and processes in the history of political thought.--Robert E. Kelly, University of the Pacific