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Showing 1 - 5 of 5 items
Scotland: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Rab Houston. 2008
Professor of modern history examines Scotland's politics, laws, society, religious institutions, schools and universities, culture, and relationship with the world,…
including the factors that have distinguished it from England both before and after Union. 2008
Corruption: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Leslie Holmes. 2015
Explores corruption in government and business--starting with experts' disagreement over precisely what it is. Discusses cultural differences in what constitutes…
corrupt behavior; its social, legal, political, and economic impacts; systemic causes of corruption; and national and international efforts to fight it. 2015
Terrorism: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Charles Townshend. 2011
Professor of international history examines the historical, ideological, and regional roots of terrorist violence. Explores terrorism in relation to revolutionary…
power, nationalism, and religious extremism and considers the successes of specific terrorist and antiterrorist campaigns recently and in the distant past. Discusses debates about the erosion of civil liberties. 2011
Democracy: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Bernard Crick. 2002
A short account of the history of the doctrine and practice of democracy, from ancient Greece and Rome through the…
American, French, and Russian revolutions, and of the usages and practices associated with it in the modern world. It argues that democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good government, and that ideas of the rule of law, and of human rights, should in some situations limit democratic claims. 2002.
Russian politics: A very short introduction
By Brian D Taylor. 2025
Russia is rarely out of the news. Yet Russian politics can be difficult to understand. It is powerfully shaped by…
large, impersonal forces such as geography, and Russia's place in the international political and economic system. At the same time, Russia's formal political institutions, such as the Constitution and electoral procedures, are relatively weak and manipulable compared to those of stable, established democracies. Under these circumstances, powerful leaders represent a source of potential dynamism and change. This Very Short Introduction provides a guide to understanding Russian Politics that goes beyond the headlines, offering a vivid account of the key forces driving Russian politics. It places Russia in a global context while explaining its internal political development. Several major themes run through the book, including the primacy of the state over society, the role of the so-called "West," which has represented a source of inspiration, of threat, and of competition for generations of Russians, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet collapse brought about dramatic change across multiple spheres, from the nature of the political and economic system to the country's borders and who counted as a citizen. To this day, Russia is still working its way through the consequences of these transformations