Political Analysis provides an accessible and engaging yet original introduction and distinctive contribution, to the analysis of political structures, institutions, ideas and behaviours, and above all, to the political processes through which they are constantly made and remade. Following an innovative introduction to the main approaches and concepts in political analysis, the text focuses thematically on the key issues which currently concern and divide political analysts, including the boundaries of the political; the question of structure, agency and power; the dynamics of political change; the relative significance of ideas and material factors; and the challenge posed by postmodernism which the author argues the discipline can strengthen itself by addressing without allowing it to become a recipe for paralysis.
Autorentext
Colin Hay is Professor of Political Analysis and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Klappentext
Political Analysis provides an accessible and engaging yet original introduction and distinctive contribution, to the analysis of political structures, institutions, ideas and behaviours, and above all, to the political processes through which they are constantly made and remade. Following an innovative introduction to the main approaches and concepts in political analysis, the text focuses thematically on the key issues which currently concern and divide political analysts, including the boundaries of the political; the question of structure, agency and power; the dynamics of political change; the relative significance of ideas and material factors; and the challenge posed by postmodernism which the author argues the discipline can strengthen itself by addressing without allowing it to become a recipe for paralysis.
Inhalt
Analytical Perspectives, Analytical Controversies
What's Political about Political Science?
Beyond Structure versus Agency: Context versus Conduct
Continuity and Discontinuity in the Analysis of Political Change
Divided by a Common Language? Conceptualising Power
The Discursive and the Ideational in Contemporary Political Analysis: Beyond Materialism and Idealism
The Challenge of Postmodernism
Conclusion: Critical
Political
Analytical.