For undergraduate courses in comparative politics.
Providing country-by-country studies of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran, Countries and Concepts highlights points that can apply to many countries for comparative analysis and covers key countries with greater depth than any other text.
The 9th edition of this bestselling text continues to emphasize the importance of civic education in the historical, political, economic, geographical, and moral aspects of democracy, as well as the need for students to READ their textbook. Rich in vocabulary, concepts, and examples, students and instructors will find this text highly readable and thought-provoking. Providing first studies in the political culture, political institutions, and political history of four European countries; two Asian countries; and three countries in Central America, Africa, and the Middle East; instructors of varying teaching approaches will be able to design their courses using this text as a foundation and lead into the discussion of the social impact of the conflicts in these countries.
For undergraduate courses in comparative politics.
Providing country-by-country studies of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran, Countries and Concepts highlights points that can apply to many countries for comparative analysis and covers key countries with greater depth than any other text.
The 9th edition of this bestselling text continues to emphasize the importance of civic education in the historical, political, economic, geographical, and moral aspects of democracy, as well as the need for students to READ their textbook. Rich in vocabulary, concepts, and examples, students and instructors will find this text highly readable and thought-provoking. Providing first studies in the political culture, political institutions, and political history of four European countries; two Asian countries; and three countries in Central America, Africa, and the Middle East; instructors of varying teaching approaches will be able to design their courses using this text as a foundation and lead into the discussion of the social impact of the conflicts in these countries.
CHAPTER 1 THE CONCEPT OF COUNTRY
The Modern State
The Rise of Nationalism
Looking for Quarrels
The Impact of the Past
The Key Institutions
Political Culture
Patterns of Interaction
What People Quarrel About
Key Terms
Key Web Sites
Further Reference
Part I Great Britain
CHAPTER 2 BRITAIN: THE IMPACT OF THE PAST
Magna Carta
The Rise of Parliament
Henry VIII
Parliament versus King
Cromwell’s Commonwealth
The “Glorious Revolution”
The Rise of the Prime Minister
The Democratization of Parliament
The Rise of the Welfare State
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 3 BRITAIN: THE KEY INSTITUTIONS
The Monarch
The Cabinet
The Prime Minister
Commons
How Commons Works
Peerless Lords
The Parties
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 4 BRITISH POLITICAL CULTURE
“Public” Schools
“Oxbridge”
Class and Voting
The Deferential British?
British Civility
Pragmatism
Traditions and Symbols
Legitimacy and Authority
The Ulster Ulcer
A Changing Political Culture
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 5 BRITAIN: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION
National and Local Party
Politics within the Parties
Parties and Interest Groups
The Parties Face Each Other
The Cabinet and the Civil Servants
The Civil Service and Interest Groups
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 6 WHAT BRITONS QUARREL ABOUT
The “British Disease”
The Thatcher Cure
The Trouble with National Health
Is Northern Ireland Settled?
Britain’s Race Problem
Britain and Europe
Great Britain or Little England?
Key Terms
Further Reference
Part II France
CHAPTER 7 FRANCE: THE IMPACT OF THE PAST
The Roman Influence
The Rise of French Absolutism
Louis XIV: The High Point of Absolutism
Why the French Revolution?
From Freedom to Tyranny
The Bourbon Restoration
The Third Republic
Vichy: France Splits Again
The Fourth Republic
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 8 FRANCE: THE KEY INSTITUTIONS
A Semipresidential System
Premier and Cabinet
The National Assembly
A Senate That Fights Back
The French Multiparty System
France’s Electoral System
The Constitutional Council
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 9 FRENCH POLITICAL CULTURE
Historical Roots of French Attitudes
A Climate of Mistrust
The Nasty Split
School for Grinds
The “Great Schools”
The Fear of “Face to Face”
Freedom or Authority?
Social Class
The Great Calming Down
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 10 FRANCE: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION
The Emerging Party System
The Demise of the French Communists
The Fractured Right
The Stalemate Cycle
Referendum Madness
Fragmented Labor Unions
Business and the Bureaucracy
The Eternal Bureaucracy
Government by Bureaucracy
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 11 WHAT THE FRENCH QUARREL ABOUT
Big Guys versus Little Guys
The Privatization Question
Unemployment: The Giant Problem
France’s Racial Problem
France’s Education Problems
France and Europe
Key Terms
Further Reference
Part III Germany
CHAPTER 12 GERMANY: THE IMPACT OF THE PAST
Who Are the Germans?
The Fragmented Nation
The Rise of Prussia
German Nationalism
The Second Reich
The Catastrophe: World War I
Republic without Democrats
The Third Reich
The Occupation
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 13 GERMANY: THE KEY INSTITUTIONS
The President
The Chancellor
The Cabinet
The Bundestag
The Constitutional Court
From “Two-Plus” to Multiparty System?
The Bundesrat
A Split Electoral System
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 14 GERMAN POLITICAL CULTURE
The Moral Vacuum
The Remembrance of Things Past
The Generation Gap
A Normal Germany?
The Disorienting Unification
The End of Shell Shock
The German Political Elite
The German Split Personality
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 15 GERMANY: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION
Parties and the Electorate
The Chancellor and the Electorate
German Dealignment?
The Bundestag and the Citizen
The Union-Party Linkup
The Länder and Berlin
German Voting Patterns
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 16 WHAT GERMANS QUARREL ABOUT
The End of the Miracle
How to Merge Two Economies
How Much Welfare?
The Flood of Foreigners
Is Berlin Weimar?
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 17 THE EUROPEAN UNION
Impact of the Past A History of Wishful Thinking
“Ever Closer Union” The Key Institutions
Democratic Deficit The Political Culture of the EU
Patterns of Interaction An Elite Thing
Attack of the Polish Plumbers What Europeans Quarrel About
Liberal Europe versus Social Europe
Europe’s Budget Battles
What Next?
Key Terms
Further Reference
Part IV Russia
CHAPTER 18 RUSSIA: THE IMPACT OF THE PAST
The Slavic People
Russian Autocracy
Absolutism or Anarchy?
Forced Modernization
Westernizers and Slavophiles
From Frustration to Revolution
Marxism Comes to Russia
Curtain Raiser: The 1905 Revolution
World War I and Collapse
The Revolution and Civil War
War Communism and NEP
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 19 RUSSIA: THE KEY INSTITUTIONS
The Stalin System
A Centralized Federal System
The New System
A Party System under Construction
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 20 RUSSIAN POLITICAL CULTURE
The Russian Difference
The Mask of Legitimacy
The Illusion of Ideology
The Rediscovery of Civil Society
Natural Egalitarians?
Russian Racism
A Culture of Insecurity
Russia: Paranoid or Normal?
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 21 RUSSIA: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION
Reformers versus Conservatives
President versus Parliament
The Taming of the Oligarchs
The Mafia
The Army
Transition to What?
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 22 WHAT RUSSIANS QUARREL ABOUT
Why the Soviet Union Collapsed
How to Reform?
From the Rubble of the Ruble
Recover the Lost Republics?
A Middle Way for Socialism?
Which Way Russia?
Key Terms
Further Reference
Part V Japan
CHAPTER 23 JAPAN: THE IMPACT OF THE PAST
Japanese Feudalism
The European Jolt
The Forced Entry
The 1868 Meiji Restoration
The Path to War
The Great Pacific War
Up from the Ashes
Key Terms 350
Further Reference
CHAPTER 24 JAPAN: THE KEY INSTITUTIONS
The Monarchy
The Prime Minister
The Diet
The Parties
Japan’s Electoral System
The Ministries
Japanese Territorial Organization
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 25 JAPANESE POLITICAL CULTURE
The Cult of the Group
Education for Grinds
Death of a Sarariman
Political Suicide
The “New Human Race”
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 26 JAPAN: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION
Bureaucrats in Command
Corruption Scandals
No One in Charge?
No Losers
Reform without Change
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 27 WHAT JAPANESE QUARREL ABOUT
The Japanese Economic Miracle
The Secret of Japan’s Success
From Bubble to Burst
Should Japanese Live Better?
Should Japan Re-Arm?
A New Japan?
Key Terms
Further Reference
Part VI China
CHAPTER 28 CHINA: THE IMPACT OF THE PAST
The Bureaucratic Empire
The Long Collapse
From Empire to Republic
The Communist Triumph
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 29 CHINA: THE KEY INSTITUTIONS
The Importance of the Party
The Soviet Parallel
The Party
The Army
A Unitary System with Chinese Characteristics
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 30 CHINESE POLITICAL CULTURE
Traditional Culture
Nationalism
Maoism
Crouching Anger, Hidden Dissent
Proud China
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 31 CHINA: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION
Cycles of Upheaval
Chinese Liberal and Conservative Politics
Rule by Engineers
Emerging Pluralism?
Rice-Roots Democracy
Coercion in Reserve
Key Terms
Further Reference
CHAPTER 32 WHAT CHINESE QUARREL ABOUT
It Only Looks Capitalist
Yuan and Dollars
A Market Economy for China?
A Middle Way for the Middle Kingdom?
Enraging the Dragon
China and the World 4
Key Terms 4
Further Reference
Part VII The Third World
CHAPTER 33 MEXICO
The Impact of the Past New Spain
Mexican Independence
Between Monarchy and Republic
The Mexican Revolution
The Revolution Institutionalized The Key Institutions
The Six-Year Presidency
Mexico’s Legislature
Mexico’s Dominant-Party System
Mexican Federalism 497Mexican Political Culture
Mexico’s Indian Heritage
Imported Ideologies Patterns of Interaction
Politics inside PRI
Mexican Catholicism
Crime and Politics What Mexicans Quarrel About
Population and Jobs
The NAFTA Question
Drugs: A Mexican or U.S. Problem?
Illegal or Undocumented?
Modern Mexico?
Key Terms
Key Web Sites
Further Reference
CHAPTER 34 NIGERIA
The Impact of the Past The Coming of the Europeans
The Scramble for Africa
The Colonial Interlude
Independence The Key Institutions
From British to U.S. Model
The National Assembly
Nigeria’s Parties Nigerian Political Culture
Nigerian Fragmentation
The Igbo and Biafra
The Trouble with Nigeria
Democrats without Democracy Patterns of Interaction
Count the Coups What Nigerians Quarrel About
The Corruption Factor
Oil and Democracy
Key Terms
Key Web Sites
Further Reference
CHAPTER 35 IRAN
The Impact of the Past The Arab Conquest
Western Penetration
The First Pahlavi
The Last Pahlavi The Key Institutions
A Theocracy
Iran’s Legislature
Emerging Parties?
An Unfree System Iranian Political Culture
Islam as a Political Ideology
Democracy and Authority
Iranian Nationalism Patterns of Interaction
Religion as a Political Tool
Moderates and Islamists in Iran
The Revolution Burns Out What Iranians Quarrel About
Which Way for Iran’s Economy
The Veiled Debate on Islam
What Kind of Foreign Policy?
Do Revolutions End Badly?
Key Terms
Key Web Sites
Further Reference
CHAPTER 36 LESSONS OF NINE COUNTRIES
GLOSSARY
PHOTO CREDITS
INDEX
This 9th edition of the bestselling text, Countries and Concepts, continues to emphasize the importance of civic education in the historical, political, economic, geographical, and moral aspects of democracy, as well as the need for students to READ their textbook.
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