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Political Science For Dummies

1. Aufl.

von: Marcus A. Stadelmann
16,99 €
Verlag:	Wiley
Format:	EPUB
Veröffentl.:	27.07.2020
ISBN/EAN:	9781119674771
Sprache:	englisch
Anzahl Seiten:	336

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Beschreibungen

Titelbeschreibung

Expand your political science knowledge with a book that explains concepts in a way anyone can understand! The global political climate is dynamic, at times even volatile. To understand this evolving landscape, it’s important to learn more about how countries are governed. Political Science For Dummies explores the questions that political scientists examine, such as how our leaders make decisions, who shapes political policy, and why countries go to war. The book is the perfect course supplement for students taking college-level, introductory political science courses. Political Science For Dummies is a guide that makes political science concepts easier to grasp. <ul> <li>Get a better understanding of political ideologies, institutions, policies, processes, and behavior</li> <li>Explore topics such as class, government, diplomacy, law, strategy, and war</li> <li>Learn the specialized vocabulary within the field of political science</li> <li>Help prepare for a range of careers, from policy analyst to legislative assistant</li> </ul> Political science crosses into many other areas of study, such as sociology, economics, history, anthropology, international relations, law, statistics, and public policy. Those who want to understand the implications of changing political economies or how governing bodies work can look to Political Science For Dummies. It’s the book thatcuts through the jargon as it focuses on issues that interest readers.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Understanding Political Science 5 Chapter 1: Discovering the Discipline of Political Science 7 Looking at Politics and Political Science 8 Going back to the history of political science 8 Being a part of the social sciences 9 Being fragmented 10 Studying Political Power 11 Exercising political power 12 Different thoughts on political power 12 Views on who holds the power 12 Checking on sources of political power 14 Searching for Sources of Legitimacy 15 Political structures 15 Results 15 History 16 Habit 16 International recognition 16 Religion 16 Nationalism 17 Chapter 2: Shaping Research in Political Science: Looking at Major Approaches 19 Starting with Traditionalism 20 Switching to Behavioralism 21 Being a behavioralist 22 Turning the social sciences into a real science 25 Moving Leftward with Post-Behavioralism 25 Agreeing with behavioralism 26 Differing from behavioralism 26 Comparing Political Science Theories 27 Creating theories 28 Grand theory 28 Medium-range theory 29 Narrow-range theory 29 Looking at Historical Sociology 29 Seeking Benefits: Rational Choice Theory 30 Chapter 3: Dealing with Political Culture 31 Analyzing Political Culture 31 The importance of political culture 32 Changing political cultures 33 Sustaining Democracy: The Civic Culture 34 Being behavioral in nature 35 Asking questions 36 Finding three political cultures 37 Needing three political cultures to sustain democracy 38 Working on Political Socialization 39 Goals of political socialization 40 Agents of political socialization 41 Moving from Materialist to Postmaterialist 44 Part 2: Comparing Governments 47 Chapter 4: Discussing Different Forms of Government 49 Identifying Types of Governments 49 Diving in to democracy 50 Testing totalitarianism 52 Answering to authoritarianism 55 Dividing Powers 56 Centering on a unitary system 56 Focusing on federalism 57 Dissecting federalism versus a unitary system 57 Checking on confederations 59 Classifying the three systems of governments 61 Chapter 5: Setting the Rules: Constitutions 63 Looking at Constitution Basics 64 Discovering the purpose of constitutions 65 Checking out constitution components 65 Creating a New Country: The U.S Constitution of 1789 66 Framing the U.S Constitution 67 Facing problems 67 Writing a constitution 68 Using checks and balances 69 Forming an electoral college 69 Getting stronger 70 Using three principles 71 Protecting citizens’ rights 72 Making changes 74 Checking on a New Document: The Russian Constitution 75 Looking at similarities 75 Noting the differences 76 Structuring government 76 Guaranteeing civil rights and liberties 77 Changing the Russian Constitution 78 Chapter 6: Comparing Political Institutions: Systems of Government 79 Comparing Democratic Political Systems 80 Parliamentary democracies versus presidential democracies 80 Unicameralism versus bicameralism 82 Studying the U.S Congress 82 Looking at Great Britain 85 Analyzing Executives 86 The U.S presidency 86 Evolution of the U.S presidency 87 Great Britain’s prime ministry 88 Going Bureaucratic 89 The French bureaucracy 90 The U.S bureaucracy 90 Settling Disputes 91 Classifying law 91 Being supreme: The U.S Supreme Court 92 Comparing two higher courts 93 Chapter 7: Elections, Political Parties, and Interest Groups 95 Studying Elections 96 Explaining voting behavior 96 Determining the vote 97 Political Parties — Necessary for Democracy 99 Defining a political party 99 Dealing with party systems 101 Causing different party systems 102 Classifying political parties 103 Functioning in a democracy 103 Realigning with another party 106 Interest Groups: Influencing the Government 107 Going pluralist 107 Being elitist 108 Differing from political parties 108 Classifying types of interest groups 109 Joining interest groups 109 Being powerful 110 Checking out interest group functions 111 Part 3: Going Global: International Relations 113 Chapter 8: Thinking Globally: The Study of International Relations 115 Understanding the Origins of International Relations 116 Creating states 116 Getting familiar with international relations terms 117 Getting into the Theories of International Relations 117 Individual: The first level of analysis 118 State: The second level of analysis 118 Systemic: The third level of analysis 119 Getting Real: The Power of Realism 119 Balancing power: The balance of power theory 120 Avoiding conflict: The power transition model 122 Noting neorealism 123 Moving into hegemonic decline 125 Doing Good: Idealism 127 Being Equal through Global Humanism 129 Striving for Change with Constructivism 130 Chapter 9: Creating Some Order: International Law and Diplomacy 131 Defining International Law 132 Studying Sources of International Law 133 Reviewing the great writers of international law 133 Examining international treaties 137 Connecting with Diplomacy 141 Being a successful diplomat 142 Regulating diplomacy: The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 142 Chapter 10: Creating Order through International Organizations 145 Getting Together in Europe — The Concert of Europe 146 Calling for a League of Nations 146 Coming up with 14 points 147 Starting weak as an international organization 148 Needing a United Nations 149 Sharing similarities with the League of Nations 150 Setting up a Charter for the United Nations 151 Looking at the six structures of the United Nations 152 Budgeting for an international organization 156 Keeping the peace 157 Guaranteeing human rights 158 Setting up the International Bill of Human Rights 160 Chapter 11: Not Going to War: The Cold War 1946–1991 163 Explaining the Cold War 164 Using systemic explanations 164 Applying history 164 Misinterpreting actions 165 Trying to protect itself 165 Being aggressive 166 Highlighting the Cold War 166 Containing the Soviet Union 166 Coming together 167 Saving Greece and Turkey: The Truman Doctrine 168 Restoring Europe: The Marshall Plan 168 Feeding millions: The Berlin Airlift 169 Going to war in Korea 169 Just talking: The Doctrine of Rollback 170 Building the Berlin Wall 171 The Cuban missile crisis 172 Staying Communist: The Brezhnev Doctrine 172 Getting stuck in Vietnam 172 Invading Afghanistan 175 Destroying an empire 175 Analyzing Strategic Doctrines and the Arms Race 176 Becoming superior one more time 177 Getting creative in the 1970s 178 Chapter 12: Dealing with Political Violence: War and Terrorism 181 Examining Warfare 182 Discovering the types of war 182 Changing warfare 183 Looking at the Causes of War 184 Economic 184 Sociological 184 Psychological 185 Ideological 186 Systemic 187 Dealing with Terrorism 187 Studying characteristics of terrorism 188 Taking in types of terrorism 189 Going to War with Evil 191 How a terrorist group begins: Al Qaeda 192 Evolution of a terrorist leader 193 Exploring the Costs of War 193 Chapter 13: Mixing Disciplines: International Political Economy 195 Fusing Economics and Politics 196 Creating a New Economic Order 196 Designing a World Bank 197 Establishing the International Monetary Fund 198 Developing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 199 Discovering Economic Theories 199 Economic liberalism 200 Mercantilism 201 State capitalism 202 State socialism 203 Examining Population and the Division of Wealth 204 Defining terms 204 Looking at global inequality 205 Causing Economic Decline in the Third World 205 Colonialism 206 Dependency theory 206 Third-World elites 207 Domestic factors 207 International organizations 208 The international debt crisis 208 Multinational corporations 209 Seeking Globalization: An Integration of Countries 210 Measuring globalization 211 Comparing countries: The KOF Index of Globalization 211 Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel 213 Part 4: Going from Classical to Modern Political Ideologies 215 Chapter 14: Starting in Greece: The Roots of Political Science 217 Studying Ancient Greece and the Start of Political Science 218 Questioning Everything: Socrates 219 Introducing inductive reasoning 219 Taking a critical look at politics 220 Putting Political Philosophy into Play: Plato 220 Advocating for ethics 222 Believing in just behavior 222 Dividing into classes 223 Creating an elite 224 Seeking a Scientific Approach: Aristotle 224 Creating communities 225 Being human: A look at humanity and politics 226 Classifying forms of governments 226 Putting Ethics to Use 227 Serving the public first 227 Designing the U.S government 228 Chapter 15: Going Modern: Middle Ages to the Present 229 Taking a Lesson on Catholic Theory 229 Saint Augustine (354–430) 230 Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) 231 Revolting against religion 232 Understanding Power 232 Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) 232 Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) 236 John Locke (1632–1704) 239 Montesquieu (1689–1755) 241 Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) 243 Moving to Classical Conservatism 245 Saving traditional beliefs and institutions 245 Defining conservative views 246 Advocating for Classical Liberalism 247 Leaving the economy alone 248 Believing in people 249 Putting the Government Back in Charge: Modern Liberalism 250 Chapter 16: Moving to the Right: Fascism, Neofascism, and Right-Wing Populism 251 Getting a Sense of Fascism 252 Starting Out: The Beginnings of Fascism 253 Coming first: Benito Mussolini 253 Causing Fascism 254 The story behind Fascism 255 Fascist core beliefs 256 Rising of Neofascism 259 Challenging the Elite: Populism 260 Making a path for populism 261 Causing populism 262 Swinging Right: Right-Wing Populism in Europe 262 Building of a right-wing populist party in France: The French National Front 263 Wanting change: The Alternative for Germany (AfD) 267 Chapter 17: Going Left: Communism, Socialism, and Social Democracy 271 Causing Socialism 271 Starting with Karl Marx 273 Marx’s political theories 274 Marx’s economic theories 277 Realities of Marx’s theories 279 Updating Marxism: Lenin 279 Lenin’s contributions to Marxism 280 Dissecting Lenin’s pivotal work 281 Traveling to Asia: Maoism 283 Going Democratic: Social Democracy 285 Part 5: The Part of Tens 287 Chapter 18: Ten Political Science Books Everyone Should Read 289 Politics (335–323 BCE) 290 The Prince (1513) 290 Leviathan (1651) 291 Two Treatises of Government (1690) 291 The Wealth of Nations (1776) 292 The Communist Manifesto (1848) 292 The American Voter (1960) 293 Man, the State, and War (1959) 293 Who Governs? (1961) 294 Who’s Running America? (8th Edition, 2017) 295 Chapter 19: Ten Modern Political Scientists 297 David Easton 298 Gabriel Almond 298 Hans Morgenthau 299 Kenneth Waltz 299 Vladimir Orlando Key 300 Samuel P. Huntington 300 John Rawls 301 Francis Fukuyama 301 Robert Gilpin 302 Robert O. Keohane 302 Index 303

Autorenportrait

Marcus A. Stadelmann, PhD, is a professor of political science and chair of the Department of Political Science and History at the University of Texas at Tyler. Along with teaching at universities in California, Utah, and Texas, Dr. Stadelmann has published and given presentations in the fields of American politics and international relations.

Back cover copy

<ul> <li>Explore different forms of government</li> <li>Dive into international relations and political conflict</li> <li>Understand why countries go to war</li> </ul> Explore the world's fluid political landscape Love it or hate it, political science impacts our daily lives in so many ways. Get a step ahead by learning about the structure of various political systems, exploring the evolution of political science, understanding key terms, and finding out how international relations shape our world. Discover the differences in various authoritarian regimes, how different legislatures work, a bit about international law, and the basis of assorted political ideologies. Just don't be surprised to find yourself becoming fascinated with it all! Inside... <ul> <li>Exploring different political systems</li> <li>How disasters affect politics</li> <li>The roots of war</li> <li>Thinkers who changed the world</li> <li>Classical and modern political philosophies</li> <li>The effect of a global economy</li> <li>Understanding political culture</li> </ul>