Challenging dominant assumptions in international relations, Altered States demonstrates that national political institutions change more frequently-and less dramatically-than is commonly thought and with important consequences for the political landscape. Combining theory with solid empirical research-including archival evidence and interviews-the contributors explore the causes and consequences of institutional transformation in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Republics, and Cuba. Altered States highlights the dynamic and interactive relationship between national political institutions and reform-minded policy entrepreneurs, a perspective that will interest scholars and policy makers alike.

This textbook analyses the changing nature of public policy over the last thirty years, looking at the impact of governance and offering a theoretically and critically informed account of the changing nature of the state. The text also draws on a wide range of interviews conducted with Conservative and Labour ministers, civil servants and pressure group representatives, providing solid primary empirical material with which to illuminate each of the chapters.