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This volume introduces readers to an age-old question that has perplexed Russians and Westerners alike. Is Russia the eastern flank of Europe? Or is it really the heartland of another civilization? In exploring this question, the contributing authors present a sweeping survey of cultural, religious, political, and economic developments in Russia, especially over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Planned as a course book for interdisciplinary programs in Western Civilization or Russian Area Studies, the text features highlight boxes, glossaries, study questions, a discography, a guide to on-line art galleries, and annotated reading lists.
How the World Works builds on students' instincts about current world events and develops them into a more systematic and enduring understanding. This brief text introduces each of the field's major theories and demonstrates how different conceptual tools are used to interpret patterns in international relations. How the World Works not only grounds students in the essentials of international relations but also helps students use them to see past the headlines.
With contributions by more than thirty of the world's leading scholars of democracy, this volume presents the most comprehensive assessment available of the state of democracy in the world at the beginning of the new millennium.
Since its inception, the Journal of Democracy has served as the premier venue for scholarship on democratization. The newest volume in the acclaimed Journal of Democracy book series, Democracy: A Reader brings together the seminal works that have appeared in its pages in nearly twenty years of publication. Democracy is in retreat around the world, giving renewed relevance and urgency to fundamental questions about the system that nevertheless remains the ideal standard of governance. Contributors ask: What exactly is democracy, and what sustains it? What institutions are best suited to a democratic system? Can elections produce undemocratic outcomes? Is democracy a universal value? Democracy...
Readings on How the World Works presents writings on contemporary issues in international relations and provides examples of how the field's major theories explain real-world events. Designed to complement the coverage in survey texts like How the World Works, this reader balances analytical and descriptive selections that are accessible for students new to political science. Readings on How the World Works is easy and inexpensive to add to any course and helps students develop a more systematic and enduring understanding of international relations.
Exploring the dynamics of state-society relations in post-Soviet Russia, noted scholars examine the nature of authority patterns within and between state and society. The authors explain congruence theory and employ it to interpret contemporary Russian politics. With its strong theoretical orientation, this pathbreaking volume raises new issues in the study of post-communist politics and, from the unifying perspective of congruence theory, provides a range of views on these hotly contested issues.
This edition covers a wide range of conceptual, historical, institutional, and policy issues. Topics addressed include the question of civil society, and the problems confronting democratic governments and movements in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the post-communist countries.
Russian-European political relations have always been problematic and one of the main reasons for this is the different perspectives on even the very basic notions and concepts of political life. With a worldwide recession, the problems as well as the opportunities in Russian-European relations are magnified. While most works on Russian-European, Russian-American and Russian-West relations focus on current policies and explain them from a standard set of explanatory variables, this book penetrates deeper into the structural and ideational differences that tend to bring about misperceptions, miscalculations, misinterpretations and misdeeds in this two-directional relationship. It applies a very broad conceptual framework to analyse differences that are as relevant for Europe and the EU as it is to Russia’s immediate neighbours and, while doing so, identifies the key factors that will dominate Russia-EU ties in the next decade.
This volume presents state-of-the-art creative scholarship in political science and area studies with an emphasis on Russia. The contributors, all well-known in their specialties, share the conviction that advancement in the social sciences can only be achieved through plural methodological approaches and interaction with various disciplines. Their work in this collection provides critical analyses of key issues in Russian and post-Soviet studies. It explores the most fruitful ways of studying Russia with particular emphasis on the federal system, politics in the era of Putin, challenges of Russian foreign policy, and Russian attitudes toward democracy. The vagaries of democracy are also explored in articles on Georgia and Turkey. Additionally, this book examines the philosophy of technology with an emphasis on critical theory, eco-domination, and engineering ethics.