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Written by a team of leading scholars, this new text focuses on a range of key challenges posed by developments in 21st century politics to provide a state-of-the-art assessment of current thinking and future directions in Political Science and International Relations.

Written by a team of leading scholars, this new text focuses on a range of key challenges posed by developments in 21st century politics to provide a state-of-the-art assessment of current thinking and future directions in Political Science and International Relations.

Political Analysis provides an accessible and engaging yet original introduction and distinctive contribution, to the analysis of political structures, institutions, ideas and behaviours, and above all, to the political processes through which they are constantly made and remade. Following an innovative introduction to the main approaches and concepts in political analysis, the text focuses thematically on the key issues which currently concern and divide political analysts, including the boundaries of the political; the question of structure, agency and power; the dynamics of political change; the relative significance of ideas and material factors; and the challenge posed by postmodernism which the author argues the discipline can strengthen itself by addressing without allowing it to become a recipe for paralysis.

Political Analysis provides an accessible and engaging yet original introduction and distinctive contribution, to the analysis of political structures, institutions, ideas and behaviours, and above all, to the political processes through which they are constantly made and remade. Following an innovative introduction to the main approaches and concepts in political analysis, the text focuses thematically on the key issues which currently concern and divide political analysts, including the boundaries of the political; the question of structure, agency and power; the dynamics of political change; the relative significance of ideas and material factors; and the challenge posed by postmodernism which the author argues the discipline can strengthen itself by addressing without allowing it to become a recipe for paralysis.

The Political Economy of New Labour provides one of the first systematic assessments and accessible evaluations of the modernization of the British Labour Party in the light of its landslide electoral victory in 1997. It also represents a rare attempt to locate Labour’s modernization in terms of the distinctive political economy of contemporary British capitalism and the impact of globalization, the evolution and transformation of the British State in the post-war period, the legacy of Thatcherism, and the specifics of electoral strategy and competition in contemporary Britain. In doing so, it provides a genuinely interdisciplinary account and analysis of Labour’s modernization and the strategic terrain within which this has been played out, as well as an assessment of the strategic alternatives available to a New Labour administration in an era of globalization, and an evaluation of the prospects for a decisive break with the Thatcher-Major legacy.

Politics was once a term with an array of broadly positive connotations, associated with public scrutiny, deliberation and accountability. Yet today it is an increasingly dirty word, typically synonymous with duplicity, corruption, inefficiency and undue interference in matters both public and private. How has this come to pass? Why do we hate politics and politicians so much? How pervasive is the contemporary condition of political disaffection? And what is politics anyway? In this lively and original work, Colin Hay provides a series of innovative and provocative answers to these questions. He begins by tracing the origins and development of the current climate of political disenchantment across a broad range of established democracies. Far from revealing a rising tide of apathy, however, he shows that a significant proportion of those who have withdrawn from formal politics are engaged in other modes of political activity. He goes on to develop and defend a broad and inclusive conception of politics and the political that is far less formal, less state-centric and less narrowly governmental than in most conventional accounts. By demonstrating how our expectations of politics and the political realities we witness are shaped decisively by the assumptions about human nature that we project onto political actors, Hay provides a powerful and highly distinctive account of contemporary political disenchantment. Why We Hate Politics will be essential reading for all those troubled by the contemporary political condition of the established democracies.

Politics was once a term with an array of broadly positive connotations, associated with public scrutiny, deliberation and accountability. Yet today it is an increasingly dirty word, typically synonymous with duplicity, corruption, inefficiency and undue interference in matters both public and private. How has this come to pass? Why do we hate politics and politicians so much? How pervasive is the contemporary condition of political disaffection? And what is politics anyway? In this lively and original work, Colin Hay provides a series of innovative and provocative answers to these questions. He begins by tracing the origins and development of the current climate of political disenchantment across a broad range of established democracies. Far from revealing a rising tide of apathy, however, he shows that a significant proportion of those who have withdrawn from formal politics are engaged in other modes of political activity. He goes on to develop and defend a broad and inclusive conception of politics and the political that is far less formal, less state-centric and less narrowly governmental than in most conventional accounts. By demonstrating how our expectations of politics and the political realities we witness are shaped decisively by the assumptions about human nature that we project onto political actors, Hay provides a powerful and highly distinctive account of contemporary political disenchantment. Why We Hate Politics will be essential reading for all those troubled by the contemporary political condition of the established democracies.

The definitive guide to politics in our polarised timesPolitics is everywhere. It touches almost every aspect of our lives. And it is present wherever individuals face collective choices. It is hardly surprising then that politics so often divides us, above all in an age in which the collective choices we face seem more daunting and more consequential than they have perhaps ever been.Exploring what it means to ‘think politically’ in these polarised times, this cutting-edge textbook reveals the many dimensions of politics. It does so by opening a series of analytic lenses through which we can make sense of politics and its impact upon societies and individuals. Each chapter, written by a leading scholar in the field, encourages us to view politics in a particular way, making a succinct and focussed case for the insight this brings to our understanding of political practice, political behaviour and political outcomes. Amongst the perspectives considered are politics as power, politics as moral choice, politics as identification, politics as ritual, politics as rhetoric and politics as crisis management.Written with the new student in mind, this probing introduction will be essential reading for all those who strive to make sense of politics in today’s world.

The definitive guide to politics in our polarised timesPolitics is everywhere. It touches almost every aspect of our lives. And it is present wherever individuals face collective choices. It is hardly surprising then that politics so often divides us, above all in an age in which the collective choices we face seem more daunting and more consequential than they have perhaps ever been.Exploring what it means to ‘think politically’ in these polarised times, this cutting-edge textbook reveals the many dimensions of politics. It does so by opening a series of analytic lenses through which we can make sense of politics and its impact upon societies and individuals. Each chapter, written by a leading scholar in the field, encourages us to view politics in a particular way, making a succinct and focussed case for the insight this brings to our understanding of political practice, political behaviour and political outcomes. Amongst the perspectives considered are politics as power, politics as moral choice, politics as identification, politics as ritual, politics as rhetoric and politics as crisis management.Written with the new student in mind, this probing introduction will be essential reading for all those who strive to make sense of politics in today’s world.