Politics: The Key Concepts (Routledge Key Guides)
Adrian Little, Ed Lock
Language: English
Pages: 214
ISBN: 041549740X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Politics: The Key Concepts is an up-to-date and broad-ranging introduction to the terms that lie at the heart of political discourse. Entries are drawn from areas such as political theory, international politics, political science and methodology. As well as explaining core, established principles, this informative guide explores some of the more complex, topical and contested concepts from the world of politics. Concepts covered include:
- Capitalism
- Class
- Identity
- Institutionalism
- Referendum
- Marxism
- Pluralism
- Postmodernism
- Socialism
- Social Constructivism
In an accessible A-Z format with helpful cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, Politics: The Key Concepts is an invaluable reference for all students of politics, international relations and related courses.
Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction
Slavery from Islamic and Christian Perspectives
Essentials of Political Research
foreign policy is designed and implemented by a wide range of actors. Clearly, heads of government often play a role, as is easily appreciated when one considers the importance of the relationship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair in the lead up to the Iraq War of 2003. Logically, a state’s foreign minister will also play a key role in the making of such policy, but so too will the heads of other departments within a government. Furthermore, given the breadth and complexity of foreign policy,
of Marxian thought. Further reading: Althusser 1990; Fukuyama 1991; Gramsci 1992; Lukács 1971; Marx 1966, 1981; Marx and Engels 1985; Wood 1981. MILITANCY Militancy is a political concept entwined within the classification of specific types of organisation and behaviour. We often see it applied in the case of direct action groups and fundamentalist movements. Underlying debates about militant action are disputes regarding the legal and justified nature of such activities. Often the militant will
a single truth that guides a particular society or societies and thus advocates a specific desirable way of life. Pluralism became a significant perspective in the social sciences in the 1950s in the USA, especially through the work of theorists such as Robert Dahl (Dahl 1956, 1974) who contended that the USA was governed by multiple elites rather than a single source of power. The descriptive or empirical idea of pluralism is used to explain a plurality of ideas within a debate or a political
other hand, questions about what makes a particular actor powerful are also questions about the context in which power is exercised. This is a very important point, because it warns us against attempting to identify general power resources; resources that can be used to exercise power regardless of the context (Baldwin 1979, 1989). A second question, or rather, set of questions, has to do with how we identify when and where power exists and is utilised. This is important in terms of the academic
reinforce these perspectives, especially in support of the ‘invisible hand’ of the market as a more desirable regulatory tool than the state. The assumptions underpinning capitalist forms of economic organisation are based around the centrality of economic growth, the pursuit of profit and the desirability of capital accumulation. These values are reinforced by a faith in the distribution of goods through supply and demand and, in particular, the disciplinary regulation of demand as the primary