Understanding Democratic Politics

This textbook is designed for first-time students of politics. It provides an ideal introduction and survey to the key themes and issues central to the study of democratic politics today.

The text is structured around three major parts: concepts, institutions and political behaviour; and ideologies and movements. Within each section a series of short and accessible chapters serve to both introduce the key ideas, institutional forms and ideological conflicts central to the study of democratic politics and provide a platform for further, in-depth studies.

Each chapter contains a ′bullet-point′ summary, a guide to further reading, and a set of questions for tutorial discussion. Designed and written for an undergraduate readership, Understanding Democratic Politics: An Introduction will become an essential guide and companion to all students of politics throughout their university degree.

This textbook is designed for first-time students of politics. It provides an ideal introduction and survey to the key themes and issues central to the study of democratic politics today.

The text is structured around three major parts: concepts, institutions and political behaviour; and ideologies and movements. Within each section a series of short and accessible chapters serve to both introduce the key ideas, institutional forms and ideological conflicts central to the study of democratic politics and provide a platform for further, in-depth studies.

Each chapter contains a ′bullet-point′ summary, a guide to further reading, and a set of questions for tutorial discussion. Designed and written for an undergraduate readership, Understanding Democratic Politics: An Introduction will become an essential guide and companion to all students of politics throughout their university degree.

PART ONE: CONCEPTS
Sovereignty - Roland Axtmann
Constitutionalism - Neil Walker
Human Rights and Democracy - David Beetham
Justice, Equality, Liberty - Vittorio Bufacchi
Power, Authority, Legitimacy - Noël O′Sullivan
Representative and Direct Democracy - Michael Saward
Majoritarianism - Thomas O Hueglin
Consociationalism
Pluralism - Judith Squires
Difference
Civil Society - Roland Axtmann
National and Global
Class - Roland Axtmann and Robert Grant
Elites
PART TWO: INSTITUTIONS AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR
The Territorial State - Michael Keating
Government, Civil Service and Public Policies - Grant Jordan and Emma Clarence
Parliaments - David Arter
Parties and Party Systems - Byron Criddle
Elections and Electoral Systems - Michael Dyer
Interest Groups - Wyn Grant
Social Movements - Lynn G Bennie
Political Participation - George Moyser
Social Capital - William A Maloney and Linda Stevenson
The Welfare State and Democracy - Michael Lister and Daniel Wincott
Cyber-democracy - Peter Ferdinand
Democratic Citizenship in the Age of Globalization - Roland Axtmann
PART THREE: IDEOLOGIES AND MOVEMENTS
Liberalism - Antonino Palumbo
Conservatism - Arthur Aughey
Socialism - Terrell Carver
Marxism
Anarchism and Democracy - Patricia Clark and Sharif Gemie
Nationalism - Alain Dieckhoffx
Contemporary Right-Wing Extremism - Anders Widfeldt
Feminism - Kimberly Hutchings
Environmentalism - John Barry
Democracy and the Islamist Paradox - Abdelwahab El-Affendi
Cosmopolitanism - Nicholas Rengger