Table of Contents

List of figures and tables
Preface
Plate acknowledgements

Introduction - Barrie Axford and Gary K. Browning

PART ONE
PEOPLE AND POLITICS
1. Is Politics Really About People? - Barrie Axford
Introduction - Three questions for analysis - Parts or wholes: should we study individuals or structures? - Forms of individualist analysis - Forms of functional and structural analysis - The modern individual - Individuals as utility maximisers: the myth of `economic' man - Individualism in action - Individuals and rights - Individualism and collectivism - Communitarianism - Beyond individualism and collectivism: the postmodern condition - Individuals and the capacity for meaningful political action - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

2. Political Socialisation - Ben Rosamond
Introduction - Political socialisation - What is political socialisation for? - The processes of political socialisation - When? - How? -The importance of political socialisation - What does political socialization tell us about political science? - What does political socialization tell us about politics? - What does political socialization tell us about the political system? - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

3. Political Culture - Ben Rosamond
Introduction - The uses of political culture - The civic culture - An alternative approach: political culture and ideology - Subcultures - Culture and political identity - Case studies of political culture - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

4. Political Participation - Barrie Axford
Introduction: What is political participation? - Who participates? Some individual and social correlates of political participation - Why do some people participate in politics and others abstain? - Agency: political efficacy and trust - Structure: the law, society and ideas - Immediate stimuli - Case study: Electoral turnout and political participation - Conclusion: A crisis of political participation? - Chapter summary - Further reading

5. Democracy and Democratisation - Richard Huggins
Introduction - Democracy in the contemporary context - Conceptualising democracy: the search for a definition - Origins of democracy - Representative democracy - Deliberative democracy - Direct democracy - Towards a minimal definition of democracy - Conceptualising democratisation: process and practice - Explaining democratization - The criticisms and limits of democracy and democratisation - Feminist critiques of liberal democracy - Republican critiques of liberal democracy - Radical critiques of liberal democracy - Environmental critiques of liberal democracy - Futures of democracy and democratisation - Globalisation and democracy - Digital democracy - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

PART TWO
POLITICS AND IDEAS

6. Concepts and Issues - Gary K. Browning
Introduction - Conceptual analysis - Freedom - The Rushdie Case - Rights - Animal rights - Equality - Justice - Conclusion - Key reading - Further reading

7. Political Thought - Gary K. Browning
Introduction - Political thought - The history of political thought - The methodology of the history of political thought - The value of the history of political thought - Key political philosophers: Plato, Plato's political thought - Thomas Hobbes - The context of Hobbes' thought - Hobbes' political thought - John Locke - Locke's political thought - Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Context of Rousseau's thought - Rousseau's political thought - John Stuart Mill - The context of Mill's thought - Politics and society - Karl Marx - The context of Marx's thought - Marx's social and political theory - The limits of Western political thought - Women and political thought - Islam - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

8. Political Ideologies - Gary K.Browning
Introducton - The nature of political ideologies - Political ideology and history - Left and Right - Liberalism - The origins of liberalism - Liberalism in the twentieth century - Conservatism - The nature of conservatism - Styles of conservatism - The success of conservatism - Socialism - Forms of socialism - Socialism and its development - Fascism - The nature of fascism - The development of fascism - Fascism in Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy - Nationalism - The development of nationalism - Explanations of nationalism - Feminism - Liberal feminism - Socialist feminism - Radical feminism - Postmodern feminism - Ecologism - Varieties of ecological standpoints on society, economy and politics - Conclusion - Key texts - Further Reading

PART THREE
THE STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES OF GOVERNANCE

9. Local Governance: Politics Below the Nation-State - Alan Grant
Introduction - The territorial distribution of power - Federalism - The requirements of federalism - Developments in federal governments - Conclusions on federalism - Local government and politics - Constitutional and legal status - Structure and responsibilities - Internal organisation - Central- local relations - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

10. The Machinery of Government - Richard Huggins
Introduction - Preliminary observations - Nations, nation-states and the state - Government and governance - Constitutions and constitutionalism - Executives, legislatures and judiciaries - Executives - Legislatures - Unicameral or bicameral? - The judiciary - Parliamentary systems of government - Presidential executives - Other forms of government - Transnational governance and the European Union - a new model? - The virtual machinery of government? - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

11. Parties, Interest Groups and Public Opinion - Barrie Axford
Introduction - Political parties and party systems - Party systems - Party systems in established democracies - The organization of parties - The functions of political parties - Are political parties in decline? - Interest groups - Parties and interest groups - What are interest groups?: types of interest groups - Theories and models if interest group politics - The resources and tactics used by interest groups - The power of interest groups - Public opinion - What is public opinion? - Whose opinion is public opinion? - How is public opinion institutionalized and expressed? - The construction of public opinion - Elections and public opinion - Is public opinion fickle? - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

12. Political Communication and the media - Richard Huggins
Introduction - What is political communication? - Contexts of political communication - The development of political communication - Newspapers - Radio - Television - Managing political communication: how do politicians communicate? - Politics in media culture: a crisis for democracy? - The global media - New media and political activism - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

13. The Policy Process - John Turner
Introduction - the study of policy - Policy in action: the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001 to 2002 - Policy definition - Policy formulation - Policy implementation - Problem superseded and redefined - Policy outcomes - A model of policy-making: Easton's input-output model - The policy process and the state - Pluralist explanations - Neo-pluralist explanations - Corporatist explanations - Marxist explanations - Neo-liberal explanations - Theories of decision-making - Rationality and decision-making - Cost-benefit analysis - Modified rationality - Disjointed incrementalism - Innovation and mixed scanning - Organisational and bureaucratic models of decision-making - Ideology and decision-making - Implementation models of policy-making - Advocacy coalitions and negotiated orders - Policy communities and networks - Case study in the policy process: policy learning and the Brent Spar decision - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading - Websites

PART 4
POLITICS BEYOND THE TERRITORIAL STATE

14. Politics and governance above the territorial state - Ben Rosamond
Introduction - International politics - Thinking about international relations - The end of international politics? - Breaking the mould of international politics? :The European Union - European integration - The origins of the European Union - Patterns of politics - European integration and the end of the nation-state? - Law and authority in world politics: the Pinochet case - War without states?: After 11 September, 2001 - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading

15. The Processes of globalisation - Barrie Axford
From beyond the nation-state to global politics? - The concept of globalisation - Globalisation as growing interconnectedness - Global consciousness, or thinking globally - Global compression - Globalisation as relativisation and indigenisation - The idea of a global system - The forces and features of globalisation - The world economy and the new international division of labour - The world political order - Global governance? - Global cultures - Vectors of globalisation - The end of a world of territorial nation-states? - A post-capitalist world economic order? - A global civil society? - The prospect of civilisational conflict? - Global chaos? - Conclusion - Chapter summary - Key texts - Further reading