Teach Yourself: Politics: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself

Editor/Author Joyce, Peter
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Price: Core Collection Only
ISBN: 978-1-52-939796-3
Category: Social Sciences - Political science
Book Status: Available
Table of Contents

This book, complete with exercises and answers, forms a course which will take you from beginner or intermediate level to having a firm grasp of the main topics in politics and government.

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Table of Contents

  • How to use this book
  • 1 Key issues in the study of politics
  • Political culture
  • States and governments
  • The role of the state
  • Power, authority and legitimacy
  • The rule of law
  • Equality
  • 2 Liberal democracy
  • Political systems
  • Democracy and liberal democracy?
  • Legislators and public opinion
  • Referendums
  • 3 Political ideologies
  • What is political ideology?
  • The political spectrum
  • Left-wing political ideologies
  • Feminism
  • The centre and centre-left of the political spectrum
  • Right-wing political ideologies
  • 4 Elections and electoral systems
  • The significance of elections
  • The cost of election campaigns
  • The mandate
  • Voting behaviour
  • Opinion polls
  • The first-past-the-post electoral system and its variants
  • Proportional representation
  • The first-past-the-post electoral system analysed
  • Proportional representation analysed
  • 5 Political parties and party systems
  • Parties and party systems
  • Determinants of party systems
  • The role of political parties
  • The decline of party?
  • 6 Pressure groups
  • Definition
  • The role of pressure groups
  • Political parties and pressure groups
  • Classification of pressure groups
  • The activities of pressure groups
  • The international arena
  • Pressure group influence
  • The strengths and weaknesses of pressure group activity
  • 7 Protest
  • What is protest?
  • Petitions
  • Demonstrations
  • Direct action
  • Civil disobedience
  • Industrial disputes
  • Riots
  • The state's response to protest
  • 8 The media and politics
  • The role of the media in a liberal democracy
  • The role of the media
  • Problems posed by the media
  • The political influence of the media
  • Cross-media ownership
  • 9 Constitutions and human rights
  • What is a constitution?
  • Constitutions as living history
  • The role of a constitution
  • Keeping codified constitutions up to date
  • The United Kingdom's uncodified constitution
  • 10 The executive branch of government
  • The role of the executive branch of government
  • Parliamentary and presidential forms of government
  • Relations within the executive branch
  • How chief executives are chosen
  • Cabinet government in the United Kingdom
  • The power of chief executives
  • The chief executive's bureaucracy
  • Heads of state
  • Chief executives in the UK and USA since 1945
  • 11 The bureaucracy
  • The role of the bureaucracy
  • How is the machinery of government organized?
  • The civil service as a ruling elite
  • Administrators and politics
  • Minister–civil servant relationships in the UK
  • Political control of the bureaucracy
  • Reform of the civil service
  • Freedom of information and official secrecy
  • 12 The legislative branch of government
  • The functions of legislatures
  • The operations of legislatures
  • Bicameral and unicameral legislatures
  • Changes affecting the power and authority of legislatures
  • The continued vitality of legislatures
  • 13 The judicial branch of government
  • What do the courts do?
  • The organization of the courts in England and Wales
  • Judicial interpretation
  • The politics of the judiciary
  • Judicial office holding
  • 14 Sub-national government
  • Definition of sub-national government
  • Federalism
  • Regionalism
  • Local government
  • Central control and local autonomy
  • Local government reform in Britain
  • 15 The nation state in the modern world
  • Sovereignty and nationalism
  • Threats to external sovereignty
  • The European Union
  • The main institutions of the European Union
  • Key policies of the EU
  • EU–USA relationships
  • 16 International terrorism
  • Definition of terrorism
  • Terrorist aims and objectives
  • Terrorist tactics
  • Old versus new terrorism
  • State reaction to terrorism
  • Why are terrorist campaigns hard to counter?
  • Glossary
  • Answers to fact-check questions