Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, And Issues

Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues

UNDERSTANDING POLITICS, the proven, best-selling introductory text for Introduction to Political Science, examines the complexities of politics and government in a way that students will find immediately fascinating. Solidly based on three fundamental premises-that politics is a pervasive force in modern society, that government is too important to be left in the hands of the few, and that in a democracy everyone has both the opportunity and the obligation to participate in public life-the text builds on these beliefs, and seeks to "educate to participate." UNDERSTANDINING POLITICS focuses on such pertinent concepts as democracy, dictatorship, citizenship, voting behavior, elections, leadership, ideologies, war, revolution, world politics, and public policy-fundamental concepts that provide students with a view of politics and economics that is at once lucid, nuanced, and empowering. About the Author Thomas Magstadt earned his doctorate at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is the author NATIONS AND GOVERNMENTS: COMPARATIVE POLITICS IN REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE, Sixth Edition, (Wadsworth Publishing, 2011), and AN EMPIRE IF YOU CAN KEEP IT: POWER AND PRINCIPLE IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY (CQ Press, 2004). He has also published numerous journal articles, policy papers, and op-ed pieces, and is a regular contributor to Nation of Change, an on-line daily newspaper. He has chaired political science departments at Augustana College (Sioux Falls) and the University of Nebraska (Kearney), and has taught at the Thunderbird School, the Air War College, and the University of Missouri--Kansas City. In the 1980s, he served for a time as a foreign intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. He was a Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic from 1994 to 1996. From 2007 to 2010, he lectured on the European Union at the University of Kansas.