This Student Guide will help you to: * Identify key content for the exams with our concise coverage of topics * Avoid common pitfalls with clear definitions and exam tips throughout * Reinforce your learning with bullet-list summaries at the end of each section * Make links between topics with synoptic links highlighted throughout * Test your knowledge with rapid-fire knowledge check questions and answers * Find out what examiners are looking for with our Questions & Answers section, for the core political ideas, plus Anarchism, Feminism and Nationalism

Author is one of the most renowned and prominent scholars in Russian foreign policy, politics and IR. Offers a comparative approach of IR theories which situates Russian realism among the national and worldwide discourses.

The book presents the subject of the Polish political system, which, not unlike many others, is subject to dynamic political and social change. The ever-modernizing Polish state seeks ways to improve its institutions and increase coordination of crucial policies. Poland also exhibits effects symptomatic of a crisis of liberal democracy, undermining the legacy of its democratic transformation. The authors of this volume answer questions on identity of Polish systemic solutions, the nature of change in constitutionalism and the modern political system of Poland, all in the light of Polish political tradition. Moreover, they analyze the roles of various state authorities, political leadership dilemmas, the legitimization of power, and the question of Polish membership in the EU.

This study considers the multidimensional nature of the construction of the active civil society in the post-totalitarian reality of Central and Eastern Europe, covering the period of systemic transformations in the region in 1989 to the EU accession of 2004. The analysis was carried out using a multidisciplinary research perspective which incorporates historical, sociological, and legal insights, as well as those from political science. The volume illustrates the dynamic character of the process of constructing an active civil society process in a broader comparative perspective against the background of post-totalitarian societies, Germany and Italy, which underwent the process of democratic transformation in 1945 and went on to actively forge the European Community in the 1950s.

The Hojjatiyeh Society is one of the most fascinating religious groups in modern Iran. The society started its way in the 1950s as an anti-Baha'i movement but found itself fighting Khomeini's Velayat-i Faqih and leading an anti-Khomeini and messianic agenda. Despite the Hojjatiyeh's fight against Khomeini, the Hojjatiyeh became, unwillingly and unintentionally, a leading faction in the Islamic Revolution, with its members coming to occupy some of the highest echelon posts in Iranian politics. The Hojjatiyeh was dismissed in 1983 by Khomeini, but it seems it never truly left the political sphere until today, when its traces can still be found on Iranian politics. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his mentor the Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi are reported to be Hojjatiyeh members.

This book presents, for the first time in the English language, Marcel Gauchet's interpretation of the challenges faced by contemporary Western societies as a result of the crisis of liberal democratic politics and the growing influence of populism. Responding to Gauchet's analysis, international experts explore the depoliticising aspects of contemporary democratic culture that explain the appeal of populism: neo-liberal individualism, the cult of the individual and its related human rights, and the juridification of all human relationships. The book also provides the intellectual context within which Gauchet's understanding of modern society has developed-in particular, his critical engagement with Marxism and the profound influence of Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort on his work. It highlights the way Gauchet's work remains faithful to an understanding of history that stresses the role of humanity as a collective subject, while also seeking to account for both the historical novelty of contemporary individualism and the new form of alienation that radical modernity engenders. In doing so, the book also opens up new avenues for reflection on the political significance of the contemporary health crisis. Marcel Gauchet and the Crisis of Democratic Politics will be of great interest to scholars and postgraduate students of social and political thought, political anthropology and sociology, political philosophy, and political theory.

Rhenish capitalism is an ideal-typical model of capitalism which is characterised by a bank-centered financing system, close economic ties between banks and companies, a balance of power between shareholders and management, and a social partnership between unions and employers. The West German economy of the 1950s to the 1980s is the prime example of that model of capitalism which contrasts with the liberal Anglo-Saxon forms of capitalism. In accordance with recent debates about Varieties of Capitalism, the authors argue that research on capitalism should pay more attention to change over time. The book also claims to put the firm into the centre of analysis. The empirical contributions uncover the differences between French and German corporate governance practices comparing two European automobile producers (VW and Renault), analyse legal debates and practices of corporate control in post-war Germany, show the tension between national corporate governance and increasing internationalisation by reference to four major West German producers of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and fibres; and explore the opportunities encountered by German big banks vis-a-vis their customers from big industry. Furthermore, they show that coordinating culture in the supply relationship of the German automobile industry came under pressure at the end of the boom and stress the importance of communication processes as a basis for interest coordination in Rhenish capitalism. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Business History.

This study explores the relation between Plato's Republic and Laws on the set of issues that the Laws marks out as fundamental to the comparison--the unity of the virtues, the role of women, and the place of the family. Plato aims to persuade men to abandon the views of the good life that Greek cities and their laws inculcate as the only life worth living for those who would be real men and not effeminate weaklings.

The West is declining, and Wood blames it on the self-implosion of our intellectual cultural heritage. Modernism is collapsing under its own weight, as postmodern ideals eat away at the West's twin pillars of reason and responsibility. Our media-fueled, image-driven, non-linear recasting of the good life has led to the rejection of reason, the enshrinement of greed, ecological debasement, retribalization, and the erosion of democratic mores. Wood thoughtfully explains the origins of our current cultural malaise, and argues that western culture literally becomes more unreasonable as we abandon our Enlightenment heritage and become an anti-intellectual society. There are steps we can take to reclaim our intellectual heritage. We need a sense of balance, and affirmation of the best qualities of modernism and postmodernism. Although science and religion must be championed, there is much value in passion and spontaneity, for religion and existential faith, for tradition and for community. Some remedies Wood considers include a return to the liberal arts, environmental restoration, economic restructuring and equity, and worldwide political reform.

The book discusses the issue of the correlation between social capital and political participation. The reader is given an extensive overview of the social capital term as well as the conventional and unconventional political participation terms including the historical conceptualization of the paradigm as well as its modern interpretations. Furthermore, the author explores the issue through empirical studies - conducted in 2017 and 2018 as a part of research grant titled 'Political Participation of Poles - New Challenges and Forms of Activity'. Through the study, the Author establishes the indicators of independent variables shaping political participation among Poles. Lastly, the author provides theoretical syntheses in the form of typology of political participation models.

This issue of Political Power and Social Theory explores the changes in science associated with the rise of neoliberalism since the 1970s. The neoliberalization of science has complicated interactions among states, markets, and civil society, often in ways that challenge major assumptions underlying decades of research. The articles collected here break with older Mertonian sociologies of science and constructivist microsociologies of scientific knowledge to examine the mesolevel problem of the changing institutional contexts of "the scientific field" as originally identified by Pierre Bourdieu. Papers presented in Part I extend Bourdieu's relational approach to the broader set of interactions among scientific, regulatory, industry, and social movement fields. Part II extends Bourdieu's concern with order and the scientific habitus to the changing patterns of scientific practices under neoliberalism. By reconceptualizing the central problem for the social studies of science as the political sociological problem of field and interfield dynamics, the collected papers chart an important theoretical agenda for future research in the study of sciencesociety relations.

'Global War on Terrorism' or Global War over Terra Africana?: How Imperial Powers Seek to Occupy Africa Militarily is a long, onerous academic voyage of the demystification and demythologization of the Global War on Terror former US president George W Bush and former UK premier Tony Blair conceived, envisaged and declared for their hidden personal and national interests. It is a hidden and untold story of the other side about the GWOT which is but the GWOTA. Major arguments presented gyrate around the deconstruction; and overhaul of the GWOT so that it can be equally formulated and fought by all nations for the interests of all but not the interests of some as it currently is. Also, the book repudiates the pontification the pontifices maximus of the GWOTA have always made ex nihilo while concealing their drive[s] for perpetually exploiting poor countries. Terrorism is a world phenomenon everybody must fight provided it is collectively agreed, decided and declared for the collective good and interests of the world but not the interests of a few hegemonic countries that usurped the power of declaring who is a terrorist and who is not. Although terrorism is real, the manner it is fought is a little bit knotty. This tome acts as an eye opener and a wake-up call for Africa to start interrogating and excavating the hidden truths about the GWOT chiefly the way it was enacted, declared, presented and now fought with essentialist and controversialist modus operandi and rationale. Other major questions asked and answered are: Why exporting military and military hardware guised as fighting terrorism without underscoring the terror military incursion will, inter alia, cause to Africa especially? If truly the aim of the GWOT is to wage war on terror, why doesn't the West want to empower African armies? Why did the US appoint itself to lead the war conceived and declared without meeting the requirements of the just war or international standards? Why hasn't the world learned from Iraq and Libya whose governments were toppled under the facade of the GWOT? Is it the GWOT or the GWOTA?

Introduces the basic theories and analyses the cultural construction of populism regarding radical democratic theory and empirical studies. The author builds a bridge between radical democratic and ideational approaches on populism with examples and studies that emphasise European radical right populism, alongside US, Latin American and Asian cases. The future of populism is discussed in regard to Covid-19 pandemic and Donald Trump's fall in the US presidential elections in 2020 that together with above-mentioned global megatrends and with the development of media and communication environment set conditions for the 2020s populism.

This book presents a challenging view of the adoption and co-option of multiculturalism in Latin America from six scholars with extensive experience of grassroots movements and intellectual debates. It raises serious questions of theory, method, and interpretation for both social scientists and policymakers on the basis of cases in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Multicultural policies have enabled people to recover the land of their ancestors, administer justice in accordance with their traditions, provide recognition as full citizens of the nation, and promote affirmative action to enable them to take the place in society which is theirs by right. The message of this book is that while the multicultural response has done much to raise the symbolic recognition of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples nationally and internationally, its application calls for a profound reappraisal in spheres such as land, gender, institutional design, and equal opportunities. Written by scholars with long-term and in-depth engagement in Latin America, the chapters show that multicultural theories and policies, which assume racial and cultural boundaries to be clear-cut, overlook the pervasive reality of racial and cultural mixture and place excessive confidence in identity politics.

Leading figures and rising stars in the field present the first contribution explaining the transnational nature of the revolutionary violence of the New Left. Focusing on the processes of dissemination of ideologies and mobilization of ideas and repertoires of action among the revolutionary organizations of the New Left in Latin America, Europe, and the United States, this book contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of the New Left wave and, at the same time, helps explain the "why" of the emergence of very similar armed leftist groups in vastly different geographical and political contexts.

The income share of the top one percent of the population in the United States has increased from a little over nine percent of national income in the 1970s to 22.46 percent in 2012 a 144 percent increase. What is driving this astronomic growth in incomes for some? Is it possibly the result of non-meritorious forces? If so, how has this incredibly unequal development coexisted, and indeed worsened, in a political system based on equality? In Economic Inequality and Policy Control in the United States, Stelzner tackles each of these questions, and, in order to further develop understanding, Stelzner looks to the past and analyzes our experience with income inequality and the orientation of laws and institutions from the Gilded Age through the New and Fair Deal. He concludes that we have the tools to tackle inequality at present the same policies we used during the New and Fair Deal. However, in order to make change durable, we have to eliminate the undemocratic elements of our political system.

The book presents a collection of articles authored by several members of the Warsaw School of Political Theory, affiliated with the University of Warsaw. The team of scholars, whose roots extend to the 1970s when professor Artur Bodnar founded the Political Theory Research Group at University of Warsaw's Methodical Centre for Political Science (COM SNP), has been conducting research under the leadership of professor Miros(3)aw Karwat. The school's most distinguishing features include: the acceptance of the directives and principles of methodological holism, the acceptance and creative development of holistic integral definitions, the application of sociocentric spatial analyses, and a critical approach to the "cratocentric" tradition.

In Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities Bernd Reiter contributes to the ongoing efforts to decolonize the social sciences and humanities, by arguing that true decolonization implies a liberation from the elite culture that Western civilization has perpetually promoted. Reiter brings together lessons learned from field research on a Colombian indigenous society, a maroon society, also in Colombia, from Afro-Brazilian religion, from Spanish Anarchism, and from German Council democracy, and from analyzing non-Western ontologies and epistemologies in general. He claims that once these lessons are absorbed, it becomes clear that Western civilization has advanced individualization and elitism. The chapters present the case that human beings are able to rule themselves, and have done so for some 300,000 years, before the Neolithic Revolution. Self-rule and rule by councils is our default option once we rid ourselves of leaders and rulers. Reiter concludes by considering the massive manipulations and the heinous divisions that political elitism, dressed in the form of representative democracy, has brought us, and implores us to seek true freedom and democracy by liberating ourselves from political elites and taking on political responsibilities. Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities is written for students, scholars, and social justice activists across cultural anthropology, sociology, geography, Latin American Studies, Africana Studies, and political science.

In Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities Bernd Reiter contributes to the ongoing efforts to decolonize the social sciences and humanities, by arguing that true decolonization implies a liberation from the elite culture that Western civilization has perpetually promoted. Reiter brings together lessons learned from field research on a Colombian indigenous society, a maroon society, also in Colombia, from Afro-Brazilian religion, from Spanish Anarchism, and from German Council democracy, and from analyzing non-Western ontologies and epistemologies in general. He claims that once these lessons are absorbed, it becomes clear that Western civilization has advanced individualization and elitism. The chapters present the case that human beings are able to rule themselves, and have done so for some 300,000 years, before the Neolithic Revolution. Self-rule and rule by councils is our default option once we rid ourselves of leaders and rulers. Reiter concludes by considering the massive manipulations and the heinous divisions that political elitism, dressed in the form of representative democracy, has brought us, and implores us to seek true freedom and democracy by liberating ourselves from political elites and taking on political responsibilities. Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities is written for students, scholars, and social justice activists across cultural anthropology, sociology, geography, Latin American Studies, Africana Studies, and political science.

In 2008 there were 149 militia groups in the United States. In 2009, that number more than tripled to 512, and now there are nearly 600. In Right-Wing Resurgence, author Daryl Johnson offers a detailed account of the growth of right-wing extremism and militias in the United States and the ever-increasing threat they pose. The author is an acknowledged expert in this area and has been an intelligence analyst working for several federal agencies for nearly 20 years. The book is also a first-hand, insider's account of the DHS Right-Wing Extremism report from the person who wrote it. It is a truthful depiction of the facts, circumstances, and events leading up to the leak of this official intelligence assessment. The leak and its aftermath have had an adverse effect on homeland security. Because of its alleged mishandling of the situation, the Department's reputation has declined in the intelligence and law enforcement communities and the analytical integrity of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis was undermined. Most importantly, the nation's security has been compromised during a critical time when a significant domestic terrorist threat is growing. This book is replete with case studies and interviews with leaders which reveal their agendas, how they recruit, and how they operate around the country. It presents a comprehensive account of an ever-growing security concern at a time when this threat is only beginning to be realized, and is still largely ignored in many circles.

This volume is the third in the "Perspectives from The Review of Politics" series, following The Crisis of Modern Times, edited by A. James McAdams (2007), and War, Peace, and International Political Realism, edited by Keir Lieber (2009). In A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism?, editors Daniel Philpott and Ryan Anderson chronicle the relationship between the Catholic Church and American liberalism as told through twenty-seven essays selected from the history of the Review of Politics, dating back to the journal's founding in 1939. The primary subject addressed in these essays is the development of a Catholic political liberalism in response to the democratic environment of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Works by Jacques Maritain, Heinrich Rommen, and Yves R. Simon forge the case for the compatibility of Catholicism and American liberal institutions, including the civic right of religious freedom. The conversation continues through recent decades, when a number of Catholic philosophers called into question the partnership between Christianity and American liberalism and were debated by others who rejoined with a strenuous defense of the partnership. The book also covers a wide range of other topics, including democracy, free market economics, the common good, human rights, international politics, and the thought of John Henry Newman, John Courtney Murray, and Alasdair MacIntyre, as well as some of the most prominent Catholic thinkers of the last century, among them John Finnis, Michael Novak, and William T. Cavanaugh. This book will be of special interest to students and scholars of political science, journalists and policymakers, church leaders, and everyday Catholics trying to make sense of Christianity in modern society. Contributors: Daniel Philpott, Ryan T. Anderson, Jacques Maritain, Alvan S. Ryan, Heinrich Rommen, Josef Pieper, Yves R. Simon, Ernest L. Fortin, John Finnis, Paul E. Sigmund, David C. Leege, Thomas R. Rourke, Michael Novak, Michael J. Baxter, David L. Schindler , Joseph A. Komonchak, John Courtney Murray, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Francis J. Connell, Carson Holloway, James V. Schall, Gary D. Glenn, John Stack, Glenn Tinder, Clarke E. Cochran, William A. Barbieri, Jr., Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul S. Rowe, and William T. Cavanaugh.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP), the ruling political Islamists of Turkey since 2002, has been using the doctrine of necessity to legitimize human rights violations. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, founder of the AKP and leader of the political Islamists, demands unconditional obedience and full control of the state. Under his leadership, the AKP government has shut down all opposing media, schools and universities and put thousands of people in prisons based on a manipulation of the necessity doctrine. In the political context, hardships are interpreted as obstacles in the way of the political Islamists holding absolute power in the state. Therefore, they use this "necessity" concept as a means to preserve their political power against all potential threats after taking full control of the state. According to the political Islamists, minority groups can be sacrificed for the benefit of the majority. Their properties can be usurped and their lives can be terminated. In moderate Islamic understanding, the state and the ruler are in the service of Muslims, not the other way around. For political Islamists, the state and the ruler (the caliph) are considered so sacred that they need to be protected against all opponents. In order to protect the state against internal and external "infidels" the caliph can resort to unlawful means because the necessity doctrine makes the forbidden things permissible. In this book, the author analyzes the concept of necessity and its exploitation by the political Islamists.

This book contributes to the discussion about the instrumental use of history. It analyses two examples of public festivities related to the events and legacy of the final stage of World War II. The first of these commemoration events is the Liberation Festival in Pilsen, a public event celebrating the liberation of Pilsen in 1945. The second event is the celebration of the Slovak National Uprising anniversary, held annually in Banska Bystrica. The analysis focuses on the manner in which public commemorations of historical events are used and instrumentalised by contemporary political elites. Prior to the political and social relevance of the analysed events, the narratives they produce are transcending into the cultural and commercial spheres.

Autocracies not only resist the global spread of democracy but are sources of autocratic influence and pressure. This book presents a conceptual model to understand, assess, and explain the promotion and diffusion of authoritarian elements. Employing a cross-regional approach, leading experts empirically test the concept of authoritarian gravity centers (AGCs), defined as "regimes that constitute a force of attraction and contagion for countries in geopolitical proximity." With an analysis extending across Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Asia, these AGCs are shown to be effective as active promoters (push) or as neutral sources of attraction (pull). The authors contend that the influence of exogenous factors, along with international and regional contexts for the transformation of regime types, is vital to understanding and analyzing the transmission of autocratic institutional settings, ideas, norms, procedures, and practices, thus explaining the regional clustering of autocracies. It is the regional context in which external actors can influence authoritarian processes most effectively. Authoritarian Gravity Centers is a vibrant and comprehensive contribution to the growing field of autocratization, which will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of comparative area studies, illiberalism, international politics, and studies of democracy.

*extremely transciplinary, engaging with applied linguistics, economics, philosophy, cultural studies and visual studies *author is an active and enthusiastic marketer, who has created video content to promote his previous book - real rising star *potential for general interest, part of a growing trend in critiquing capitalism