With an accessible, descriptive approach and an easy-to-use, three-part structure within each chapter--political development, process and institutions, and policy--this is a flexible text that is about 25% less expensive than similar texts. Instead of focusing on one perspective to the exclusion of others, Introduction to Comparative Government exposes students to multiple approaches. For example, Chapter 1 proposes a number of alternative classifications of political systems and a general context that allows the systems to be compared in different ways. Instructors and students can choose the comparative approach that they think is most helpful for understanding the whole or parts of political systems. In addition to offering a flexible and inclusive theoretical approach, Introduction to Comparative Government offers nine country study chapters and two region study chapters, each written by a specialist in that area. Each country study chapter has been thoroughly updated, and a new chapter on the Middle East (Ch. 9) has been added to help students better understand the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath.

Introduction to Comparative Government

Politics & Social Sciences

Michael, Curtis

Jean Blondel

Bernard E. Brown

Politics & Government

Harpercollins College Div

Who are the cabinet ministers in Western Europe? Are they prepared for their tasks by the jobs which they did before - do specialists, for instance, come to take on the task of running specialist ministries? Are these ministers, on the other hand, politically prepared for being in government? Do they all go through an apprenticeship in Parliament? As a matter of fact, they do not and, in several Continental countries, not just France, but also the Netherlands, Austria, or Norway, many ministers come to office without a parliamentary background. Does this mean that they are better prepared to their tasks than British ministers who, like their Italian or Irish colleagues, all went through Parliament? What kind of career do they then follow? Do they stay in office long? Do they change jobs or not? On this, too, there are many country variations, as there are variations in terms of the "post-ministerial careers", that is to say of the jobs which, after being ministers they are able to obtain. "The Profession of Government Minister in Western Europe" looks at all these questions on the basis of a vast file covering over 2,000 ministers from 1945 to the 1980s. Although Western European countries are so similar politically in many ways, the ministerial career is vastly different - and lessons can be drawn from the differences. A specialist political science, Jean Blondell has written and edited a number of books on contemporary politics and political structures and processes. These include "Cabinets in Western Europe" and "Comparative Politics", both published by Macmillan.

Profession of Government Minister in Western Europe

Administrative Law

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Parliamentary cabinets are supposed to be collective bodies, taking their decisions on the basis of agreements among all the members. Yet much has been made of the growth of the role of prime ministers, not just in Britain, but all over western Europe. Much has also been made of the trend towards letting cabinet decisions be taken by committees or even by individual ministers. It is indeed true that twenty men and women, meeting only a few hours a week, cannot take all the decisions of the State. These are the issues which this study examines, on the basis of the replies of over 400 cabinet ministers across western Europe. The result is the first truly empirical analysis in a subject on which what has been known so far has tended to be speculation.

Governing Together: The Extent and Limits of Joint Decision-Making in Western European Cabinets

Citizens and the State: Attitudes in Western Europe and East and Southeast Asia (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory)

Takashi Inoguchi

Routledge

Political Cultures In Asia And Europe

Taylor & Francis Group

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Books by Jean Blondel