Comparative Government Books - Page 2

Political Science

Robert L. Cord

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

"Unbiased?" Yeah, right! 1 out of 5 stars.
40 of 64 people found this review helpful.

Let me start by admitting I have the Seventh Edition (2000), not the 2002 version. However, I doubt that there could be much improvement. This "textbook" can only be the product of gross incompetence or extreme bias, I will let you decide which.

For example, page 340 reads "It is true that some regimes commit acts of great evil; military regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala killed thousands on the slightest suspicion of leftism. But how is it that these military regimes came to power? Why does system breakdown recur repeatedly in such contries?"

So, does the author not know that we, the US, overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz in Guatemalla, and Allende in Chile? Everyone else knows this...and does the author not know that Chile, prior to this installation of Pinochet, was the one stable democracy in Latin America? So how then is Chile a case of this "recur(ing) repeatedly? (sic)" It happened once. Does the fact that two of his three examples of internal "system breakdown" leading to regime change actualy represent partially, or largely, the external actions of a superpower interfering in the internal affairs of weaker soveriegn countries not seem to be problematic? How can these be used as examples of internal processes when everyone knows what really happened, and that is not it? The author, in order to assert this, must be grossly ignorant of history (thereby disqualifying him as a viable authority in the field) or, knowing history, must be intentionally and knowingly distorting it for political reasons (thereby making him unquestionably biased, intellectually dishonest, and also therefore unsuited for the field).

On top of that we have the unfortunately normal systemic incompetence of the Political Science field in general. "Theory" and "causation" are words which they have no grasp of the meaning of in academic discourse. Methodology is a joke; a pile of correlations mushed together with assertions and assumptions (some already disproven for a few decades elsewhere) to create just-so stories does not make a legitimate theory or even hypothesis. We know too much about human nature, via studies done in Psychology, Neurobiology, and Evolutionary Psychology, and empirical information from anthropology, primatology, and ethology, and theoretical and empirical knowledge supplied by evolutionary biology, to just "assume" that humans are rational and go merrily on our way as Political Science is still doing. There is a huge body of knowledge on this question now, entire books debate it back and forth. It is in no way legitimate to simply plead ignorance and continue to build huge mental constructs of how the world works based on assumptions we in no way can justify making given what is known.

If this field were in any way deserving of the word "science," the knowledge that a fundamental "assumption" was seriously in doubt would result in massive questioning of the veracity of the ideas based on that assumption. That has not happened.

I urge you all not to waste your money on this book, I could give many more equally damning examples but the above should suffice. I also suggest that Evolutionary Psychology would be a far more profitable course of study if you want to know about human political behavior.

Editorial Review:

Exceptionally up-to-date and rich in cross-national examples—with an emphasis on the U.S. political system—this book offers an unbiased, thorough introduction to the basic terminology, concepts, and theories of political science. A five-part organization covers chapter topics under the headings of: the bases of politics, political attitudes, political interaction, the institutions of politics, and what political systems do. For anyone looking for an exciting view of the political science field.

Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order

Amazon Price: $70.20 List Price: $78.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $63.17

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Cornerstone of the discipline 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a great piece of work. The essays are short and concise. If you plan on taking graduate exams, START with this book to find out how to carve up the discipline. Read this book about 1 week before your exam, you won't be sorry.
This is also a book with theory applications. The chapters on structures and rational choice are particularly strong in that vein. This is also a book you will want to own so you can mark it up.

Editorial Review:

Now in its third edition, this unique textbook remains a favorite for introductory undergraduate courses in comparative politics. It features twelve theoretically and historically grounded country studies that show how the three major concepts of comparative analysis-interests, identities, and institutions-shape the politics of nations and regions. Written in a style free of heavy-handed jargon and organized to address the concerns of contemporary comparativists, this textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of our complex world. This third edition introduces completely new chapters on the European Union, France, and Nigeria.

Classics of Public Administration

Jay M. Shafritz, Albert C. Hyde

List Price: $55.95 By: Harcourt Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $0.73

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Classics of Public Administration 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

The selected readings provide a useful reference to classic public administration literature. The writings are presented in a general chronological order covering topics important to the various time periods. The book could be improved with an updated edition of current literature (stops around the Carter presidency.) An index would be helpful. Overall, a worthwhile addition to one's political science library. I refer to it often.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN PUBLIC SECTOR AT MILLENIUM'S END 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 13 people found this review helpful.

FULL MARKS GOES TO SHAFRITZ AND HYDE FOR THIS EXCLUSIVE WORK WHILE EVEN FINDING A LITERATURE ABOUT PUBLIC ADMN. IS GETTING DIFFICULT. THANKS TO BOTH!

Editorial Review:

Students have relied on CLASSICS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION for over twenty years. This collection offers works from the discipline's most significant writers, providing a historical focus that examines readings that have contributed lasting value to public administration studies. This collection gives students a sense of the continuity of public administration, and shows how the writers and themes have built upon each other during the evolution of the field.

Understanding and Managing Public Organizations (Jossey-Bass Public Administration Series)

Hal G. Rainey

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This new edition of Hal G. Rainey's award-winning book Understanding and Managing Public Organizations (1991) provides a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of research on public organizations and management, with new tables, figures, and other teaching toolds designed to make this book even more useful in graduate courses.Using nemerous real-life vignettes and examples, the book summarizes expert analysis on goals, power, effectiveness, motivation and work attitudes, decision making, and more.Drawing on a comprehensive review of current research about government organizations and managers--and about effective and ineffective practices in government--it offers specific suggestions for managing these challenges in today's public organizations. The book has been updated to include coverage of recent trends and developoments such as total quality management, the National Performance Review, the reinventing government movement and other recent reform efforts, privatization, and managing for excellence.In addition, Rainey draws from major national surveys to reveal important new development in areas such as public service motivation and the structure of public agencies.This new edition of Understanding and Managing Public Organizations covers these topics and findings to make the book a more valuable reference for students, scholars, and managers alike.

Understanding the Political World: A Comparative Introduction to Political Science

James N. Danziger

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very Iformative + Easily Understood 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

In his book, Danziger does an excellent job in portraying the political world. One might argue that this is essentially what any other book on political science would do, and this true. However, Danziger manages to apply his own personal style to the work. His explanations are clear, and to the point. One of the major features of the book are the "boxes" that appear every so often. These usually contain real life issues, or historical events that demonstrate what is trying to be taught. All in all, James N. Danziger's book is an informative, and well text on the political science.

Editorial Review:

Understanding the Political World offers a comparative perspective on how politics works at the global, national, group, and individual level. Focusing on how fundamental concepts in political science relate to real political events, this bestselling text surveys political behavior, systems, and processes throughout the world and asks students to evaluate and apply this knowledge. Through an engaging writing style, numerous examples, and the instructive use of cartoons and photographs, Understanding the Political World encourages students to think like political scientists and to critically examine new and enduring political realities and challenges.

Comparative Politics: Domestic Responses to Global Challenges

Charles Hauss

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Good Choice for AP Comparative Politics 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

As an AP Comparative Politics teacher, I have taught out of both the 4th and 5th editions of this book and have found it a good choice for a student text. I find it much more readable (particularly for high school seniors) than some of the more comprehensive texts. If you want to prepare your students adequately, however, you will need to supplement with outside material. For example, the Hauss text does not touch directly on political socialization which is a topic covered on the exam. I use Gabriel Almond's "Comparative Politics Today" as teacher resource.

Hauss delves heavily into the historical background of many of the countries, in particular those in the "Third World" section. This can be helpful for students who have a weak world history background, but as a teacher you will need to emphasize AP exam vs. background material.

Comments on the 5th edition vs. earlier editions: To follow the requirements of the new AP Comparative Gov't exam, this edition adds chapters on Nigeria and Iran. These chapters seem hastily done however as the Nigeria chapter in particular has several typos and the Iran chapter is comparatively short.

Chapters on Japan and South Africa are no longer in the printed text but there are on-line chapters on these countries, as well as an on-line chapter on Canada, on the author's website.

The 5th edition adds COLOR pictures which is a nice change from the 4th edition and makes the text somewhat more engaging for high school seniors, however compared to other high school texts visual appeal is not high on the publisher's priority list.

In summary, a good choice for AP Comparative politics as long as the teacher recognizes the need to supplement from outside sources where necessary.

Editorial Review:

This comprehensive text focuses on traditional issues and concepts in comparative politics, using a unique theme: domestic responses to global challenges. The author examines the growing interdependence among strong and weak states and discusses 12 countries, including the U.S. and the European community, to help students develop their skills of comparison, synthesis and interpretation, the author organized the text by economic development.

Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government

Mark H. Moore

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A seminal figure in the field of public management, Mark Moore presents his summation of fifteen years of research, observation, and teaching about what public sector executives should do to improve the performance of public enterprises. Useful for both practicing public executives and those who teach them, this book explicates some of the richest of several hundred cases used at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and illuminates their broader lessons for government managers. Moore addresses four questions that have long bedeviled public administration: What should citizens and their representatives expect and demand from public executives? What sources can public managers consult to learn what is valuable for them to produce? How should public managers cope with inconsistent and fickle political mandates? How can public managers find room to innovate?

Moore's answers respond to the well-understood difficulties of managing public enterprises in modern society by recommending specific, concrete changes in the practices of individual public managers: how they envision what is valuable to produce, how they engage their political overseers, and how they deliver services and fulfill obligations to clients. Following Moore's cases, we witness dilemmas faced by a cross section of public managers--William Ruckelshaus and the Environmental Protection Agency, Jerome Miller and the Department of Youth Services, Miles Mahoney and the Park Plaza Redevelopment Project, David Sencer and the swine flu scare, Lee Brown and the Houston Police Department, Harry Spence and the Boston Housing Authority. Their work, together with Moore's analysis, reveals how public managers can achieve their true goal of producing public value.

Public Personnel Management: Contexts and Strategies (5th Edition)

Donald E. Klingner, John Nalbandian

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Way too expensive 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is OK, but considering how many books are out there on this subject, I'm amazed at its high cost. Unfortunately, my professor chose this book for our class, so I need to get it. On the positive side, the book is available at our library so I will just photocopy the needed articles without having to actually purchase the book. Professors, please think about the cost of the books you require your students to buy. This kind of price gouging in the textbook market has to stop.

Editorial Review:

Reflecting contemporary political and managerial realities, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the values, conflicts, political processes, and management techniques which provide the context for personnel administration in the public sector. A five-part organization covers an introduction to the world of public personnel management, planning, acquisition, development, and sanctions. For human resources personnel—especially managers.

Public administration in America

George J Gordon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great survey book; ideal for intro undergraduate courses 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

I have used several editions of this book in my introduction to public administration courses; I have been very pleased by the breadth of coverage as well as the clarity of the exposition. In particular, the book adopts a strongly political view of administration in the public sector that is easily translatable to the classroom.

In particular, the authors adopt Yates' framework of administrative efficiency vs. pluralistic democracy early in the work and this framework serves to inform the discussion of policy, personnel, budgeting, decision making, et cetera. This provides the book with a strong thematic component that I have found lacking in other books of this type.

A couple of criticisms: The sections on ensuring democratic processes in public administration is a bit confusing and lacks a unifying theme. However, the elements of the discussion are there and can be easily clarified in a classroom discussion.

Secondly, and this is a quibble is that the treatment of alternative decision making models is a bit sketchy, but then again this is an introductory tome.

All in all a good, useful and CLEAR book for undergrad courses.

Editorial Review:

The seventh edition of PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN AMERICA offers a streamlined, accessible, and up-to-date design of the most comprehensive and widely used introduction to contemporary public administration.

A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century

Jeffery T. Richelson

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Here is the ultimate inside history of twentieth-century intelligence gathering and covert activity. Unrivalled in its scope and as readable as any spy novel, A Century of Spies travels from tsarist Russia and the earliest days of the British Secret Service to the crises and uncertainties of today's post-Cold War world, offering an unsurpassed overview of the role of modern intelligence in every part of the globe. From spies and secret agents to the latest high-tech wizardry in signals and imagery surveillance, it provides fascinating, in-depth coverage of important operations of United States, British, Russian, Israeli, Chinese, German, and French intelligence services, and much more.
All the key elements of modern intelligence activity are here. An expert whose books have received high marks from the intelligence and military communities, Jeffrey Richelson covers the crucial role of spy technology from the days of Marconi and the Wright Brothers to today's dazzling array of Space Age satellites, aircraft, and ground stations. He provides vivid portraits of spymasters, spies, and defectors--including Sidney Reilly, Herbert Yardley, Kim Philby, James Angleton, Markus Wolf, Reinhard Gehlen, Vitaly Yurchenko, Jonathan Pollard, and many others. Richelson paints a colorful portrait of World War I's spies and sabateurs, and illuminates the secret maneuvering that helped determine the outcome of the war on land, at sea, and on the diplomatic front; he investigates the enormous importance of intelligence operations in both the European and Pacific theaters in World War II, from the work of Allied and Nazi agents to the "black magic" of U.S. and British code breakers; and he gives us a complete overview of intelligence during the length of the Cold War, from superpower espionage and spy scandals to covert action and secret wars. A final chapter probes the still-evolving role of intelligence work in the new world of disorder and ethnic conflict, from the high-tech wonders of the Gulf War to the surprising involvement of the French government in industrial espionage.
Comprehensive, authoritative, and addictively readable, A Century of Spies is filled with new information on a variety of subjects--from the activities of the American Black Chamber in the 1920s to intelligence collection during the Cuban missile crisis to Soviet intelligence and covert action operations. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in military history, espionage and adventure, and world affairs.