The success or failure of empires, nation-states, and city-states often rests on the relationship between bureaucracy and politicians. In this provocative and timely volume, editor Ali Farazmand examines the myriad relationships between politicians and bureaucrats and how they affect modern governance. This book is organized around the major themes of professionalism, bureaucracy, governance, and the relationship between career bureaucrats/higher civil servants and political appointees/politicians under presidential and parliamentary systems. After introducing the basic elements of bureaucracies in Part I, the book discusses the relations between bureaucrats and politicians in presidential systems in Part II as well as in parliamentary systems in Part III. This original and up-to-date book will fill a gap in the literature on the relationship between bureaucrats and politicians in modern governance and public administration. It can be used as a primary or supplementary text at the undergraduate and graduate level for those interested in public administration, comparative public policy, political science, and government.

Some 150,000 copies of this book have been sold around the world, making Alan Ball's Modern Politics and Government one of the most widely used introductory texts available. Clearly written and straightforward, it demands no prior knowledge and is equally suitable for political science students and those taking a politics course as part of another social science degree. Starting from the definition of politics and the history of its study, it proceeds to introduce a variety of approaches and substantive aspects of political life, drawing examples from a wide range of states and political systems. The author discusses such basic concepts as power, authority, legitimacy, and political culture. He analyzes the characteristics underlying the different systems, including the post-communist systems that have emerged in the former USSR and Eastern Europe since 1989. The book looks at the major elements of the political process, judiciaries, and the political role of the military. The final part has been rewritten to analyze fully the nature of political change in the light of new approaches in political science and the collapse of communism.

This title examines the institutions and principal processes involved in contemporary Irish government and public administration.

This reissued work, originally published in 1985, is a uniquely broad and original survey of theories and beliefs about the growth, behaviour, performance and reform of the governments of modern Western democracies. After analysing the external pressures which have shaped modern governments, the author examines four different schools of political thought which seek to explain the behaviour and performance of governments, and which offer different remedies for the pluralism, corporatism and bureaucracy. To examine and test these general theories, the author looks closely at how governments actually work. The book is illustrated with examples drawn from various Western societies. The final chapters present the author’s own conclusion about the future role of government, the limits of market philosophy, the future of politics, and the principles and problems of institutional reform.

This title examines a wide variety of international and historical political systems, inviting readers to compare their own system of government with different systems around the world. It looks at how modern politics has evolved over time, what systems seem to work best, and what makes them successful. The book also explores notable failed states and governments and compares these to the successes.

This wide-ranging text provides an overview of major developments in governance in contemporary society. It illuminates recent theories about the relationship of the public and private sectors, and the interaction of politics and society. The main development in recent years is shown as a shift in the balance between government and society towards the private sector. The book explores the ways in which new balances have been struck between state and market. It examines such new ventures in public-private interaction and endeavours to explain them in terms of coping with the dynamics, complexities and diversities of modern society. In doing so, it develops the outline of a new theory of social-political governance.